Die Lage Des Landes by Richard Ford

A wry, deeply observant novel narrated by a middle-aged New Jersey real-estate agent who, over the course of a few years, confronts the ordinary upheavals of family life, aging, illness and loss; through dry humor, intimate detail and elegiac reflection he examines parenthood, failed marriages, shifting loyalties and the compromises of middle-class American identity while navigating the small dramas and moral ambiguities of suburban life.