The best novel out of America in many years, a funny, achingly sad account of a fathers disastrous outing with his son and much else besides Simply, a masterpiece JOHN BANVILLE, GUARDIAN It is the Fourth of July weekend, and we meet Frank Bascombe in the throes of what he calls his Existence Period selling real estate in New Jersey and mastering the high-wire act of normalcy. But as Independence Day arrives, Frank is called into a sudden, demanding engagement with his son and with his life. Independence Day is a moving, peerlessly funny odyssey through America and through the layered consciousness of one of its most compelling literary incarnations, conducted by a novelist of extraordinary empathy and perception. Independence Day is a book that leaves you feeling more uplifted, more consoled, than you did before reading it ... In Frank Bascombe, Ford has created a great American character for the age DAILY TELEGRAPH Powerful ... As gripping as it is affecting ... Ford has galvanised his reputation as one of his generations most eloquent voices NEW YORK TIMES