La rinuncia, nella nostra società, è diventata sinonimo di sconfitta, fallimento, è «l'ultimo nascondiglio del perdente». Solo recentemente la pandemia ci ha aiutato ad aprire gli occhi su ciò che non andava nelle nostre vite: relazioni non sane, lavori poco gratificanti, superiori dittatoriali ed egoriferiti. Eppure la rinuncia rimane un'onta: «non esistono rinunciatari seriali su LinkedIn». Ma quand'è che le cose hanno preso questa piega? Quand'è che la resilienza è diventata la qualità che tutti dovremmo augurarci di possedere?Julia Keller ci aggiorna sulle ultime scoperte della scienza riguardo alla capacità degli esseri umani di cambiare abitudini e comportamenti, aiutandoci a comprendere quando e dove ha cominciato ad affermarsi l'idea della perseveranza a tutti i costi. E lo fa raccontando le scelte di chi è riuscito per davvero a lasciare un lavoro o una relazione insoddisfacente: «le loro storie», scrive, «possono aiutarci a respingere il pensiero unico che domina questo campo (e i consigli perentori di troppi libri di auto-aiuto), secondo cui la perseveranza è una strategia vincente e infallibile», un valore che negli anni è stato «coltivato ad arte, e ci viene venduto come un qualsiasi bene di consumo». Il mondo, però, la realtà in cui siamo tutti quotidianamente immersi, sembra suggerirci qualcosa di diverso, che «il segreto di una vita felice e produttiva non è nelle qualità che normalmente ci vengono inculcate - caparbietà e risolutezza - ma nella flessibilità, nella leggerezza che deriva dalla capacità di abbandonare i pesi inutili, nel preambolo di un coragg

From the small towns of Appalachia they came, the young men who joined the fight for liberty in World War II. Now they are elderly, and some of them—like Harmon Strayer, father of prosecutor Bell Elkins's former law school classmate—suffer from Alzheimer's. When Harmon dies in an Alzheimer's care facility from what appear to be natural causes, Bell confronts a mystery that brims with questions about memory, grief and the lethal cost of burying the past. During a winter of record snow and cold, Bell and the people of Acker's Gap, West Virginia, face isolation and hardship—and the threat from a killer who preys upon the old and the sick and the helpless.

From the small towns of Appalachia they came, the young men who joined the fight for liberty in World War II. Now they are elderly, and some of them—like Harmon Strayer, father of prosecutor Bell Elkins's former law school classmate—suffer from Alzheimer's. When Harmon dies in an Alzheimer's care facility from what appear to be natural causes, Bell confronts a mystery that brims with questions about memory, grief and the lethal cost of burying the past. During a winter of record snow and cold, Bell and the people of Acker's Gap, West Virginia, face isolation and hardship—and the threat from a killer who preys upon the old and the sick and the helpless.

From the small towns of Appalachia they came, the young men who joined the fight for liberty in World War II. Now they are elderly, and some of them—like Harmon Strayer, father of prosecutor Bell Elkins's former law school classmate—suffer from Alzheimer's. When Harmon dies in an Alzheimer's care facility from what appear to be natural causes, Bell confronts a mystery that brims with questions about memory, grief and the lethal cost of burying the past. During a winter of record snow and cold, Bell and the people of Acker's Gap, West Virginia, face isolation and hardship—and the threat from a killer who preys upon the old and the sick and the helpless.

"From the small towns of Appalachia they came, the young men who joined the fight for liberty in World War II. Now they are elderly, and some of them--like Harmon Strayer, father of prosecutor Bell Elkins's former law school classmate--suffer from Alzheimer's. When Harmon dies in an Alzheimer's care facility from what appear to be natural causes, Bell confronts a mystery that brims with questions about memory, grief and the lethal cost of burying the past. During a winter of record snow and cold, Bell and the people of Acker's Gap, West Virginia, face isolation and hardship--and the threat from a killer who preys upon the old and the sick and the helpless"--

From the night-black depths of a coalmine to the sun-struck peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, from a riveting murder mystery to a poignant meditation on the meaning of love and family, the latest novel in the critically acclaimed series strikes out for new territory: the sorrow and outrage that spring from a real-life chapter in West Virginia history.

Royce Dillard doesn't remember much about the day his parents—and one hundred and twenty-three other souls—died in the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. He was only two years old when he was ripped from his mother's arms. But now Dillard, who lives off the grid with only a passel of dogs for company, is fighting for his life one more time: he's on trial for murder.

Prosecutor Bell Elkins faces her toughest challenge yet in this haunting story of vengeance, greed, and the fierce struggle for social justice. Richly imagined, vividly written, and deeply felt,Last Ragged Breath is set in West Virginia, but it really takes place in a land we all know: the country called home.

From the night-black depths of a coalmine to the sun-struck peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, from a riveting murder mystery to a poignant meditation on the meaning of love and family, the latest novel in the critically acclaimed series strikes out for new territory: the sorrow and outrage that spring from a real-life chapter in West Virginia history.

Royce Dillard doesn't remember much about the day his parents—and one hundred and twenty-three other souls—died in the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. He was only two years old when he was ripped from his mother's arms. But now Dillard, who lives off the grid with only a passel of dogs for company, is fighting for his life one more time: he's on trial for murder.

Prosecutor Bell Elkins faces her toughest challenge yet in this haunting story of vengeance, greed, and the fierce struggle for social justice. Richly imagined, vividly written, and deeply felt,Last Ragged Breath is set in West Virginia, but it really takes place in a land we all know: the country called home.

LAST RAGGED BREATH - KELLER JULIA - Headline