The Usual Desire to Kill

Literary

Hardcover First Edition 1st Printing

Details

  • Published by Scribner – Apr 1, 2025
  • Book Condition: Fine
  • Jacket Condition: Fine
  • ISBN: 978-1-6680-6283-8

Images

Cover of The Usual Desire to Kill

Description

Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983. Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”