Sun House

A Novel

By: David James Duncan

Narrated by: Robb Moreira, Barrie Kreinik, Elena Rey, Henry Leyva, Mark Bedard, L.J. Ganser, Jenn Lee, Joseph Discher

An epic comedy about love, spirit, and the quest for transcendence in an anything-but-transcendent America, from the author of the perennial cult bestsellers The River Why and The Brothers K.

A random bolt from a DC-8 falls from the sky, killing a child and throwing the faith of a young Jesuit Jesuit into crisis. A boy’s mother dies on his fifth birthday, sparking a lifetime of repressed anger that he unleashes once a year in reckless duels with the Fate, God, or Power who let the coincidence happen. A young woman on a run in Seattle experiences a shooting star moment that pierces her with a love that will eventually help heal the Jesuit, the angry young man, and innumerable others.

The journeys of this unintentional menagerie carry them to the healing lands of Montana and a newly founded community—where nothing tastes better than Maker's Mark mixed with glacier ice, and nothing seems less likely than the soul-filling delight a troupe of spiritual refugees, urban sophisticates, road-weary musicians, and local cowboys begin to find in each other's company.

With Sun House, David James Duncan continues exploring the American search for meaning and love that he began in his acclaimed novels The River Why and The Brothers K. This stunning novel, set amid the gorgeous landscapes of the American West, illuminates the contemporary world through the prisms of Eastern wisdom, cast-off ecstatic religious ideals, and the unpredictable, expansive yearnings of the human heart.

Critic reviews

"One of the greatest imaginative achievements I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading--brimming with invention, mirth, and wisdom. It transports us into a world more radiant and vivid than this one, or rather one just as radiant and vivid, if only we attended to it with the heightened awareness it urges us to cultivate."—WILLIAM DEBUYS, author of The Trail to Kanjiroba: Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss

"This is a classic epic novel with 21st century humor and timeless spirituality. I laughed so much and cried just as often. It’s sexy, politically astute, visionary, and bold. I love this novel. I love David. Read it now."—SHERMAN ALEXIE, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

"Sun House is a book of healing that will earn a place on the shelf between the world’s ancient wisdom texts and Mark Twain...Here is a book like nothing I have ever read, an epic story about how we may be made whole in a broken time."—KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE, author of Earth's Wild Music

“Like all truly extraordinary novels, the luminous Sun House is not a mere book, but a singular world in which the reader comes to reside, and to feel more alive. Told in rollicking prose laced with ab-tightening humor and high-lonesome lyricism, this immersive, sweeping tale locates the grand in the smallest particulars, and reaches its heights only after traversing the wild and sometimes steep country of the heart. To open the door to Duncan’s long-awaited masterwork is to be flooded with light and loss, and to find, ultimately, hard-won hope.”—CHRIS DOMBROWSKI, author of The River You Touch

“Reading Sun House is like watching dawn in the high country. A clear, eastern light gains strength as the story unfolds, revealing a landscape as vast and gorgeous as any mountain range at daybreak. On this bright stage, David James Duncan’s unlikely, perfectly-wrought, beloved characters perform a miracle: From ragged strands of tragedy and epiphany, they weave the fabric of a more openhearted world.”—BRYCE ANDREWS, author of Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West

“There are books that make you a happy insomniac and Sun House is absolutely one of them, like Quixote or Moby or Copperfield, the kind when you wake at three in the morning you remember that beside the bed is a thousand-room mansion of a novel, where every door opens to unexpected weather and a keen sense of appetite. Here is the best part: while these characters come in all shades of funny and searching and rueful and indignant, they are all right there and as wide awake as you are. A new big book from David James Duncan? This is a lucky time to be a reader.”—LEIF ENGER, author of Peace Like a River

Much anticipated…

This amazing epic novel falls short of expectations… seems still in draft form, in need of some ruthless editing. The story is truly wonderful, but often goes on longer than necessary. The narrators are too often over the top, painfully dramatic, distracting & disturbing to listen, truly ruined the storytelling for me. Overall so disappointing since I’m such an admirer of this author.

Beautiful Universalising Faith

I loved the multiple voices telling the multiple storylines. The comprehensive understanding of Spirit by Duncan is nourishing!

Tears and laughter

“May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.”
-Mother Teresa

These words, written through the spirit of David James Duncan, are as though sent by God to break your heart so that all of life and spirit and love can fill you. Through this story, the ineffable is made palpable. These words are experienced, not merely heard. These words will lift you to new heights, even as you are crushed by the weight of the sky.

And the narrators! What life they bring to these characters! They aren’t reading words spoken by these characters. They ARE these characters. They create living beings, possessing of the spirit of real flesh and blood.

This book chronicles the lives of numerous characters over decades of their experiences. Imagine all of the beautiful and numinous things that might occur during this time frame. Imagine the unbearable pain. And somehow, we are able to overcome. Add to this uncanny spiritual insight and you have Sun House, a tale of life lived intentionally.

Thank you, David James Duncan. You have broken my heart and opened me up to all the world.

The most important story I have yet heard

David James Duncan has written into existence a vision so prescient and relevant that I pray that it takes root in the hearts and lives of as many people as possible! Please read and laugh and cry and cry again and allow the beauty of this story to pierce you so thoroughly that you find yourself a part of its hope and divine inspiration!

Awesome!

Multiple narrators were flawlessly orchestrated. Story was detailed, interesting and well told. Character development was amazing. I loved each and everyone of them. Overall message of the book instilled in me hope for this world that I haven’t had in a very long time.