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The Limits: A novel Hardcover – April 9, 2024

by Nell Freudenberger (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 133 ratings
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The most thrilling work yet from the best-selling, prize-winning author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted, a stunning new novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations over the course of a single year

“A big-hearted, tightly-plotted novel that bravely takes on our times by looking at the timeless stuff of human intimacy. The Limits is an immersive and powerful book.”–Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

From Mo’orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti, a French biologist obsessed with saving Polynesia’s imperiled coral reefs sends her teenage daughter to live with her ex-husband in New York. By the time fifteen-year-old Pia arrives at her father Stephen’s luxury apartment in Manhattan and meets his new, younger wife, Kate, she has been shuttled between her parents’ disparate lives—her father’s consuming work as a surgeon at an overwhelmed New York hospital, her mother’s relentless drive against a ticking ecological clock—for most of her life. Fluent in French, intellectually precocious, moving between cultures with seeming ease, Pia arrives in New York poised for a rebellion, just as COVID sends her and her stepmother together into near total isolation.

A New York City schoolteacher, Kate struggles to connect with a teenager whose capacity for destruction seems exceeded only by her privilege. Even as Kate fails to parent Pia—and questions her own ability to become a mother—one of her sixteen-year-old students is already caring for a toddler full time. Athyna’s love for her nephew, Marcus, is a burden that becomes heavier as she struggles to finish her senior year online. Juggling her manifold responsibilities, Athyna finds herself more and more anxious every time she leaves the house. Just as her fear of what is waiting for her outside her Staten Island community feels insupportable, an incident at home makes her desperate to leave.

When their lives collide, Pia and Athyna spiral toward parallel but inescapably different tragedies. Moving from a South Pacific “paradise,” where rage still simmers against the colonial government and its devastating nuclear tests, to the extreme inequalities of twenty-first century New York City, The Limits is an unforgettably moving novel about nation, race, class, and family. Heart-wrenching and humane, a profound work from one of America’s most prodigiously gifted novelists.
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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Knopf
  4. Publication date
    April 9, 2024
  5. Dimensions
    6.46 x 1.26 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    059344888X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0593448885
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The Limits] displays one of the most impressive aspects of Freudenberger’s work: Deep research is effortlessly deployed in the service of a story and pressing contemporary issues are woven seamlessly into the fabric of the novel. Here, Freudenberger’s moral passion about the capitalistic exploitation of natural resources and the horrors of climate change charges the novel with an ethical force. As always, her graceful, limpid writing style makes the novel eminently readable.” —The Boston Globe

“Deeply moving . . . An astonishingly real­istic portrayal of every­day people facing the challenges of modern life.” –Real Simple

“Engaging . . . The Limits is insightful about the ways the Covid crisis applied pressure to unsteady joints, as if testing which bonds would last.” —Wall Street Journal

"In Freudenberger’s worldly, sophisticated storytelling, characters who are essentially good fumble and cause accidents everywhere they go.​" –Vogue

"Freudenberger ably captures the sense of uncertainty and displacement during the height of the pandemic, matching the inner confusion of major life changes with the outer turmoil of a world in crisis." –The Washington Post

“From New York City to a Zoom screen, from a hospital full of early COVID-19 cases to an island off the coast of Tahiti, Freudenberger brings the anxieties and challenges of the early pandemic days to vivid, engaging life. The characters have full and fascinating inner lives, and real concerns—parenthood, a spreading virus, preserving the natural world—that layer with their interpersonal conflicts . . . In The Limits, Freudenberger deftly employs the questions posed by climate change, seafloor mining and the struggle of modern medicine in the face of the unknown to shape the story.” —BookPage (starred review)

“Freudenberger’s exceptional skills as a novelist, her seamless prose and formidable intelligence, are on full display in The Limits. A novel about privilege and precarity, isolation and trauma, it is also a story of tenderness, love, and ultimately, hope.” –Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies


“A big-hearted, tightly-plotted novel that bravely takes on our times—from Covid-19 to climate change—by looking at the timeless stuff of human intimacy. Nell Freudenberger writes beautifully about the bonds between people: parents and children, lovers and exes, even strangers. The Limits is an immersive and powerful book.”–Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind


“Nell Freudenberger proves yet again a masterful novelist, deftly painting her characters' interwoven lives against the backdrop of our tumultuous times. Rich, nuanced and compelling, The Limits is a deeply satisfying novel.”–Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl


“The Limits brilliantly renders the era of the pandemic, capturing how two families, in all their imperfections, try so valiantly to hold on to their loved ones in a difficult time. When you combine Freudenberger's meticulous research with her ability to portray our most complicated selves, the result is a novel that enlightens us in all the ways that truly matter. You will be transformed by this story.” –Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand


“The Limits is a transcendently powerful novel, one that will haunt you with its urgent questions. What happens when we reach our own limits: of our capacity to love, or to meet the needs of those who rely on us, or to brook the extraordinary uncertainties of our world? You’ll stay up long past bedtime reading and rereading these exquisitely wrought pages. Freudenberger is a master of the novelist’s art, and this is her best work yet.” –Julie Orringer, author of The Invisible Bridge

“As in Freudenberger's previous work, scientific points are well integrated and explained, and the intelligent, precise narration is a pleasure, with graceful depiction of the characters' inner lives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A layered story of race and privilege set against the backdrop of Covid-19 lockdowns . . . Freudenberger’s longtime fans will find all the probing social insights and well-drawn characters they’ve come to expect from this accomplished author.” –Publishers Weekly
 
“Freudenberger is fluent in every realm, social conundrum, and crime against the earth she brings into focus, keenly attuned to science and emotion, tradition and high-tech, race and gender, greed and conscience, irony and tragedy. Each characters’ challenges are significant on scales intimate and global and their wrestling with secrets, anger, and fear grows  increasingly suspenseful in this lambent, deeply sympathetic, and thought-provoking novel.” –Booklist (starred review)

"Freudenberger brings the anxieties and challenges of the early pandemic days to vivid, engaging life . . . In The Limits, Freudenberger deftly employs thequestions posed by climate change, seafloormining and the struggle of modern medicinein the face of the unknown to shape the story." –BookPage (starred review)
 
“Sensitive, luminous, and sometimes wryly funny, The Limits is a nuanced portrait of the difficult, worthwhile work of connecting with others-–even during a global disaster.” –Shelf Awareness

About the Author

NELL FREUDENBERGER is the author of the novels Lost and Wanted, The Newlyweds, and The Dissident, and of the story collection Lucky Girls, which won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Storyand the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in New York, NY.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf (April 9, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 059344888X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593448885
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.26 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 133 ratings

About the author

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Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger

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NELL FREUDENBERGER is the author of the novels The Newlyweds and The Dissident, and of the story collection Lucky Girls, which won the PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Named one of The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” in 2010, she is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a Cullman Fellowship from the New York Public Library. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
133 global ratings
Covid years in a novel!
3 out of 5 stars
Covid years in a novel!
Get ready for some drama surrounding my favorite topic, and yours, the Covid years! I applaud how Nell Freudenberger captured the emotions and uncertainty of the years surrounding the Covid pandemic. It still seems to be a surreal experience in light of all that happened. This particular story took place in two very different parts of the world: NYC & Mo'Orea island in French Polynesia. It follows the lives of 4 people all bound together by familial obligation. The overarching protagonist, 15-year-old Pia, is the glue that binds - as she is shuttled between her mother, a scientist in Mo'Orea and her father, a doctor, and his young wife in NYC.The novel takes readers back to that most trying time in our very recent history. Ms. Freudenberger excelled in bringing me right back to the feelings, emotions, and struggles of Covid. There were so many things I had forgotten, things that were so unknown and absolutely terrifying at the time. It was a good reminder of what we've overcome.I especially appreciated the historical information of nuclear testing in and around the islands, which I knew little about. But you all know I'm a sucker for a good history lesson!I will admit that some of the technical descriptions of the research went over my head, and I could've done without so much French dialogue that wasn't always fully translated. I didn't like how casually teen sex was approached, if I'm honest, and Pia's infatuation with a much older man was uncomfy for me. I also didn't love the May/December marriage - it was evident Pia's father wasn't fully over his first wife.However, this story tackles a lot aside from Covid, including broken families, poverty, politics, and environmental degradation as it pertains to mining of coral reefs. I feel as though the author handled each topic with care and respect.So grateful Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for this trip down memory lane!
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Top reviews from the United States

Toby J. Galinkin
3.0 out of 5 stars I am not bi-lingual
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2024
I'm enjoying the story but am experiencing one of my ultimate pet peeves with some authors. Two main characters speak French and they "speak" French in some sentences. I DO NOT SPEAK French, I DO NOT know French and I feel it's preposterous for an author to make the assumption that her readers will understand a foreign language. This always aggravates me...at least have the courtesy of translations. How am I supposed to know what they're saying.
One person found this helpful
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Sandra Iler Kirkland
4.0 out of 5 stars A Story Of Broken Families
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2024
What happens to teenagers when their highly successful professional parents divorce? Pia is fifteen. Her mother is a marine biologist and lives in Tahiti studying coral and the effects of climate change on it. Her father is a professor in New York. After they divorced, she has lived with both of them at times as well as a year in Paris with her mother's sister. Now with Covid and lockdown, she needs to make a decision for the coming school year.

Pia decides to return to New York and live with her father. But she doesn't know that her new stepmother, Kate, is now pregnant. Her mother had encouraged Pia to go to New York because she is uneasy about Pia's friendship, perhaps crush, on a Tahitian diver who works at the institute. Now Pia will be spending most of her time with a woman she doesn't know, whose existence and pregnancy brings home daily the fact that Pia's family has irrevocably split.

Kate, in addition to being pregnant, is teaching online. Pia meets one of Kate's students and forms a friendship with her. The girls start meeting and roaming the city. They go to the island where Pia's father shares a cottage with his brothers. Pia meets a boy who she thinks she might sleep with. She also continues her relationship by phone with Tio, the diver on Tahiti her mother hoped to separate her from. Eventually, everything comes to a head and Pia needs rescuing from her situation.

Nell Fruedenberger has written several other novels which have been published to acclaim. She tends to specialize in family relationships and especially the perils of teen relationships. Pia is loved by both of her parents but their separation leaves her feeling that she is on her own and that is a fairly common feeling among teens of divorce. While highly successful adults tend to their pressing careers and job responsibilities, children can be left alone to try to make their own decisions without the adult skills to do so. Blended families now make up forty percent of existing families and sometimes the children fall through the cracks. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.
2 people found this helpful
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reviewer271
5.0 out of 5 stars The immersive feeling of a great book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024
Verified Purchase
The Limits brilliantly intertwines intrigue with the intimate lives of its characters while they endure the pandemic and more in 2020. Science, teaching, teenagers, climate change, culture and class, comedy and tragedy, the beauty of the South Pacific, the limits of hell—if you enjoy exploring the human condition then this novel is you! I loved it!
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MamasGottaRead
3.0 out of 5 stars Covid years in a novel!
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2024
Get ready for some drama surrounding my favorite topic, and yours, the Covid years! I applaud how Nell Freudenberger captured the emotions and uncertainty of the years surrounding the Covid pandemic. It still seems to be a surreal experience in light of all that happened. This particular story took place in two very different parts of the world: NYC & Mo'Orea island in French Polynesia. It follows the lives of 4 people all bound together by familial obligation. The overarching protagonist, 15-year-old Pia, is the glue that binds - as she is shuttled between her mother, a scientist in Mo'Orea and her father, a doctor, and his young wife in NYC.

The novel takes readers back to that most trying time in our very recent history. Ms. Freudenberger excelled in bringing me right back to the feelings, emotions, and struggles of Covid. There were so many things I had forgotten, things that were so unknown and absolutely terrifying at the time. It was a good reminder of what we've overcome.

I especially appreciated the historical information of nuclear testing in and around the islands, which I knew little about. But you all know I'm a sucker for a good history lesson!

I will admit that some of the technical descriptions of the research went over my head, and I could've done without so much French dialogue that wasn't always fully translated. I didn't like how casually teen sex was approached, if I'm honest, and Pia's infatuation with a much older man was uncomfy for me. I also didn't love the May/December marriage - it was evident Pia's father wasn't fully over his first wife.

However, this story tackles a lot aside from Covid, including broken families, poverty, politics, and environmental degradation as it pertains to mining of coral reefs. I feel as though the author handled each topic with care and respect.

So grateful Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for this trip down memory lane!
Customer image
MamasGottaRead
3.0 out of 5 stars Covid years in a novel!
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2024
Get ready for some drama surrounding my favorite topic, and yours, the Covid years! I applaud how Nell Freudenberger captured the emotions and uncertainty of the years surrounding the Covid pandemic. It still seems to be a surreal experience in light of all that happened. This particular story took place in two very different parts of the world: NYC & Mo'Orea island in French Polynesia. It follows the lives of 4 people all bound together by familial obligation. The overarching protagonist, 15-year-old Pia, is the glue that binds - as she is shuttled between her mother, a scientist in Mo'Orea and her father, a doctor, and his young wife in NYC.

The novel takes readers back to that most trying time in our very recent history. Ms. Freudenberger excelled in bringing me right back to the feelings, emotions, and struggles of Covid. There were so many things I had forgotten, things that were so unknown and absolutely terrifying at the time. It was a good reminder of what we've overcome.

I especially appreciated the historical information of nuclear testing in and around the islands, which I knew little about. But you all know I'm a sucker for a good history lesson!

I will admit that some of the technical descriptions of the research went over my head, and I could've done without so much French dialogue that wasn't always fully translated. I didn't like how casually teen sex was approached, if I'm honest, and Pia's infatuation with a much older man was uncomfy for me. I also didn't love the May/December marriage - it was evident Pia's father wasn't fully over his first wife.

However, this story tackles a lot aside from Covid, including broken families, poverty, politics, and environmental degradation as it pertains to mining of coral reefs. I feel as though the author handled each topic with care and respect.

So grateful Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for this trip down memory lane!
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One person found this helpful
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Barbii
4.0 out of 5 stars Read it Rapidly
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2024
I think you’ll enjoy this novel more if you read it rapidly. If you’re scientifically inclined you might enjoy the descriptions. They abound. By reading rapidly you find out sooner what happens to several of the interesting characters.
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Jenny D
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Thrilling, I could not put it down!
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024
Verified Purchase
A gorgeous and fast moving book that explores and questions our relationships with each other and the planet. It was one of those books you just can't put down, and wake up thinking about. I want to read it all over again. Not only is this a deep dive into interpersonal relationships, with complicated and nuanced characters; it is a physical dive into the Pacific Ocean as we learn about the tenuous state of coral reefs, all with a backdrop of the pandemic and teenage angst! Freudenberger is masterful at weaving it all together. I was blown away by her deft and skill.
3 people found this helpful
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