Three Junes
(Books)

The 2002 US National Book Award winner for fiction - following the 2001 winner, Ha Jin's Waiting. In this captivating debut novel, Julia Glass depicts the life and loves of the McLeod family during three crucial summers spanning a decade. Paul McLeod, patriarch of a Scottish family and a retired newspaper editor and proprietor, is on a package tour of Greece after the death of his wife. The story of his departure from the family home in Scotland and late gesture towards some sort of freedom gives way to his eldest son's life (Fenno). Fenno protects his heart by putting himself under emotional quarantine throughout his life as a young gay man in Manhattan. When he returns home for his father's funeral, this emotional isolation cannot be sustained when he is confronted by a choice that puts him at the centre of his family and its future. The stubborn progress of life and love continues when Fern, a young American artist who met Paul in Greece, meets Fenno after her husband's recent death, under circumstances that left her full of guilt and self-doubt. Three Junes is a novel about how we live, and live fully, beyond grief and betrayals of the heart, and how family ties (those that we make as well as those that we are born into) can offer redemption and joy.

National Book Award for Fiction 2002: Best Book.