Ball, Jesse / Census
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Jesse Ball is at UVA this semester as the 2023 Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence.
When a widower learns that he doesn't have long to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son, who has Down syndrome. With a desire to see the country on one last trip with his son, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau.
Traveling farther into the country, through towns named by letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome the pair into their homes, others are wary of their presence. As they approach Z, the man must ask: What is the purpose of the census? And just how will he learn to say goodbye to his son?
Wrenching and beautiful, Census is a novel about free will, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love. It is also an indictment of the cruelties of our society by a major writer.
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9780062676146
May 2019
Paperback
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Ball, Jesse / Census