Purity

A magnum opus for our morally complex times from the author of Freedom.

"Franzen's prose is alive with intelligence."  —  The Atlantic

Purity Tyler, known to all as Pip, is an outspoken, forthright young woman struggling to make a life for herself. She sleeps in a rickety commune in Oakland. She's in love with an unavailable older man and is saddled with staggering college debt. She has a crazy mother and doesn't know who her father is. A chance encounter leads her to an internship in South America with the world-famous Sunlight Project, the president of which is Andreas Wolf, a charismatic genius who grew up privileged but disaffected in the German Democratic Republic. Like numerous women before her, she becomes obsessed with Andreas, and they have an intense, unsettling relationship. Eventually, he finds her work back in the United States.

"Mr Franzen's most fleet-footed, least self-conscious and most intimate novel yet... In Purity, he demonstrates his ease at conjuring whole worlds with a couple of taps on the keyboard... Mr Franzen has added a new octave to his voice."  —  Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

What lies underneath is a wild tale of hidden identities, secret wealth, neurotic fidelity, sociopathy, and murder. Featuring an unforgettable cast of inimitable Franzenian characters, Purity is deeply troubling, richly moving, and hilarious.