The Laments: A Novel - Softcover

"The Laments is a fine novel, about family, migration, identity, and the struggle to find and hold on to it. It is also hugely entertaining and very, very funny."
--Roddy Doyle, author of The Barrytown Trilogy

"A vital international journey through the vicissitudes of family life. This story, centering on the timeless theme of a child swapped at birth, is immensely readable, funny, and touching--a complete joy."
--Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle

"George Hagen's highly entertaining debut novel features an irresistibly headstrong family, a global sweep, and not only a sense of loss and displacement that's perfectly in tune with the world we live in but also a full measure of resilient humanity."
--Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook

Secretly switched at birth and then adopted into the Laments family, Will journeys through three continents with his parents and fractious twin brothers while struggling with multiple relationships and a faltering sense of identity. A first novel. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.