Setting the Family Free
"... a generous, boisterous, surprising read, like a tiger in your backyard."
- Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean
“A supremely moving novel ... ferocious and tender and funny from beginning to end.”
"Warm, poignant, funny, and suspenseful ..."
- Lucrecia Guerrero, Tree of Sighs
"A good read under the Big Top of fine a craftsman's imagination. Step right up."
- Rafael Alvarez, The Fountain of Highlandtown
"Wild, wonderful, well written, and highly original."
- Toby Devens, Happy Any Day Now
"... at once funny, terrifying, and sometimes heartbreaking."
- Jerry Holt, The Killing of Strangers
“One of Baltimore’s most riveting and prolific writers.”
- Katherine Cottle, I Remain Yours
- Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean
“A supremely moving novel ... ferocious and tender and funny from beginning to end.”
- - Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
"Warm, poignant, funny, and suspenseful ..."
- Lucrecia Guerrero, Tree of Sighs
"A good read under the Big Top of fine a craftsman's imagination. Step right up."
- Rafael Alvarez, The Fountain of Highlandtown
"Wild, wonderful, well written, and highly original."
- Toby Devens, Happy Any Day Now
"... at once funny, terrifying, and sometimes heartbreaking."
- Jerry Holt, The Killing of Strangers
“One of Baltimore’s most riveting and prolific writers.”
- Katherine Cottle, I Remain Yours
Official Book Trailer for Setting the Family Free
Setting the Family Free is available now for pre-order. The latest novel by Eric D. Goodman is being released by Loyola University's Apprentice House Press on October 1, 2019. Setting the Family Free is available in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook formats.
What is Setting the Family Free about? Here's a brief teaser:
The loner who collects unusual things. The private reserve of exotic pets released into a rural Ohio community. The estranged wife who loves the animals like family. The caretaker who knows the beasts are dangerous. The Sheriff and his team of experts who must hunt the creatures down. The animal advocate who winces at the spectacle. The celebrity zookeeper who knows what must be done.
This story expands through the innovative use of multiple narratives, news broadcasts, newspaper articles, press conferences, political tapes, and quotes from experts, eyewitnesses, and those closest to the unfolding events. Who are the heroes; who are the victims? Who gets to decide?
Advance Praise for Setting the Family Free
“Like Karen Joy Fowler’s classic, We are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Eric D. Goodman’s newest novel is droll, trenchant, political … it operates on just about any level a reader could wish for. Setting the Family Free might be a fable by intention, but the what-if premise of a private zoo of exotic animals loosed on a middle American town is also a generous, boisterous, surprising read, like a tiger in your backyard.
- Jacquelyn Mitchard
author of The Deep End of the Ocean
“A supremely moving novel by turns ferocious and tender and funny from beginning to end. Goodman’s finest book.”
- Junot Díaz
Pulitzer Prize winning author of
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“Setting the Family Free reinforces Eric D. Goodman’s powerful voice and imagination as one of Baltimore’s most riveting and prolific writers. As with his former novels, Goodman captures the human condition through multiple and unpredictable lenses, illuminating our strengths and weaknesses in a presentation which merges past and present stories, intertwining conversations, and metaphorical geographies. However, Setting the Family Free takes that vision a step further, exploring the existence of the animal, both human and nonhuman, when pushed beyond its natural and enforced boundaries. The blurring between caged and free is violently, gracefully, and thoughtfully crafted, a true tale of terror—both within and without real and realized bars.”
- Katherine Cottle
author of My Father's Speech,
Halfway: A Journal through Pregnancy, and I Remain Yours
“What a read! Part fable, part meditation, and total page-turner, Setting the Family Free is a rollicking read from first sentence to last. This engaging tale of a zoo that literally opens its doors is at once funny, terrifying, and sometimes heartbreaking. What Eric D. Goodman has managed to do with the sections told by the animals is something rare and wonderful. Look for this one on the ‘Best of 2019’ lists!”
- Jerry Holt
author of The Killing of Strangers and Rickey
“After nearly 150 years of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” Ringling Brothers locked up the lion and tiger and camel and kangaroo cages for good not too long ago. Where did the animals go? Here, in Eric D. Goodman's latest literary circus, a good read under the Big Top of fine a craftsman's imagination. Step right up.”
- Rafael Alvarez
author of Basilio Boullosa Stars in the Fountain of Highlandtown and
The Wire: Truth be Told
“Warm, poignant, funny, and suspenseful, Eric D. Goodman’s Setting the Family Free looks at the meaning of family from different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. The unusual structure with its many points of view brings to life the individuals—including the animals—that make up the colorful cast of characters. This novel was a quick read: I flipped the pages rapidly, wanting to know what each character would say or do next and how that individual would affect the whole. Setting the Family Free is entertaining, but while reading, I also paused at particularly touching spots of the story to ponder on this messy, sometimes crazy, sometimes wonderful unit called family.”
- Lucrecia Guerrero
author of the award-winning novel Tree of Sighs
“Sammy Johnson collects exotic animals on his rural Ohio property, which isn’t a problem until suddenly it is, and then everybody wants in on the action. ‘Dealing with the press could prove as unpleasant as dealing with wild animals,’ Deputy Chuck Ellison observes. But the press is only a part of it in Eric D. Goodman’s rollicking story of things getting out of control. Toss in the law, psychologists, zoologists and even an old drinking buddy, and you start to get the full picture, vivid as the nightly news!”
- Charles Rammelkamp
author of Mata Hari: Eye of the Day and American Zeitgeist
“In an age when we humans seem hellbent on destroying the planet and everything on it, it's imperative to have authors writing with empathy about the impact our decisions have on our fellow creatures. Fiction is the perfect vehicle for this, especially in the hands of a compassionate writer. Eric D. Goodman takes an interesting premise, the release of captive animals from human control, and puts them on a more even footing with humans. Are we the same or even similar? Or are they just the "other" and must be subdued if their needs and wants conflict with ours? Goodman resists a Disney ending, and as all good writers do, manages to raise more questions than he answers. Setting the Family Free is a good read written by a thoughtful and skilled writer.”
- Bathsheba Monk
author of Nude Walker
“Wild, wonderful, well written, and highly original. An Ohio town is overrun by wild animals and it's a jungle out there in this page-turner novel.”
- Toby Devens
author of Happy Any Day Now and Barefoot Beach
“Setting the Family Free creates a genre all its own. It has elements of a crime novel, a romance, and a thriller. But at its heart, it is literary fiction telling the story of a deeply flawed but good man who seeks his own fulfilment through the love of animals. Awed by the power and majesty of exotic animals—lions, tigers, leopards, bears—Sammy Johnson collects them, lives with them, and loves them. His feelings for them, and theirs for him, clash with the norms of the society in which he lives, costs him his marriage, and threatens his way of life. His solution to the dilemma makes for a gripping read. This book will stay in my mind for years to come.”
- Tom Glenn
author of Last of the Annamese and The Trion Syndrome
“Inspired by true events, and set in the ‘Badlands’ of Southern Ohio, Eric D. Goodman’s latest novel describes the consequences of ‘legal’ persecution: what happens when a man who served his country in war is destroyed by tax charges and Byzantine laws.
“Usually, such men die quietly. But some—like Joseph Stack, who crashed his plane into an Internal Revenue Service Building in 2010, or Sammy Johnson, the outlaw of Goodman’s book, who released dangerous predators by cutting open their cages in his private zoo—lash out one last time. They choose the ‘Samson Option.’ They kill themselves and take others with them.
“Every year, humans kill 50 billion animals for meat. Now, thanks to Goodman’s Setting the Family Free, the animals are eating us . . .”
- Mark Mirabello, Ph.D, professor of history at Shawnee State University
author of The Cannibal Within, A Traveler's Guide to the Afterlife, and
Handbook for Rebels and Outlaws
“This is a book that satisfies on many levels. A kaleidoscopic … that adds up to one seamless, gripping story that’s both fast-paced disaster thriller and philosophical meditation on the intrinsic value of all living things.”
-Loch Raven Review
"A compelling story told by a skillful, adventurous writer."
-Late Last Night Books
“As we learn more about animal intelligence, we begin to question the idea that we should have dominion over them. This book is a valuable step in opening that conversation.”
-Monday Morning Book Blog
“A riveting page-turner. Goodman reveals a disturbing truth about human relationships: none of us is the same person to two or more others. Just as each of us is unique, so each relationship between individuals is unique.”
-Baltimore Review
Setting the Family Free, Loyola University's Apprentice House Press, October 1, 2019
