“With their lives run aground, three globetrotting siblings take refuge in the last place they would ever expect -- back home in Chicago, with one another -- in this razor-sharp debut.”
The three Brennan siblings are well on their way in the world. Samantha, the youngest, is a ballerina making her way up the ranks of a Russian dance company; her brother Jonah is a grad student studying elephants in the rainforest of Gabon; and the eldest, Gavin, has stayed closer to home, living in L.A. and acting in a cable TV series.
But as the holidays draw near, all three find themselves in varying states of crisis. Samantha is losing the battle to keep her drug addiction from ruining her career; Jonah, in his attempts to protect his elephants, gets in way too deep with a gang of ivory poachers; and Gavin's TV series is cancelled the same day his girlfriend moves out.
With their lives run aground, they reunite in their parents' home for the holidays, where they discover that the bonds between siblings are unshakable. But when their personal problems are overshadowed by a dilemma that threatens their very lives, they decide that nothing less than a journey to Africa is required to face their futures head on.
For readers of The Nest, Commonwealth, and Imagine Me Gone, The Resolutions is a contemporary look at three young people in the defining moment of their lives, by a talented author just getting started on a promising literary career.
Available for purchase at Amazon and many other booksellers.
““Hammes brings his three fractious main characters to riotous life and turns their reunion into a life-changing journey that proves Jonah’s insightful assertion that a sibling is “like a part of yourself you can never really know.” This reads like a clever mash-up of Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You, Romain Gary’s The Roots of Heaven, and Paddy Chayefsky’s Altered States, and delivers thrills while finding empathy for the cast’s troubled souls.””
““A harrowing tale of three far-flung siblings in crisis, The Resolutions is ultimately a sustained celebration of family in a chaotic world. With assured prose and compassion, Brady Hammes has crafted a debut as wise as it is engaging.””
““Brady Hammes makes a wonderfully diverse trio of siblings utterly convincing and their story utterly absorbing. The Resolutions is an imaginative and engrossing novel from a splendid new writer. ””
““Lovers of character-driven fiction are in for a treat with this debut, which invites them to care about the Brennan siblings and to fully invest in their individual and shared stories, which intertwine in surprising ways.””
““A vivid literary thrill ride that adroitly connects D-list Hollywood, Russian ballet, Gabonese elephant conservation, Christmas, drug addiction, and adult siblinghood’s awkward first steps. Take the journey. The pages will fly by.””
““The Resolutions is touching and thrilling in the most unexpected ways as two brothers, one an out of work actor, the other a research scientist in Africa, different as Cain and Abel, join forces to save their sister, a ballerina whose addiction to heroin is killing her. Taking you from a Russian dance campus to the poacher-riddled thick of Gabon, The Resolutions will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, wanting to call your family to say you love them. And to tell them you know exactly what they should read next.””
““This smartly-written tale of three dysfunctional siblings in trouble is fast-paced, witty, and engaging—full of wry wit and insight into the bonds between brothers and sisters. Brady Hammes is an exciting new talent.””
““The Resolutions…races at a high, enjoyable speed…Drugs, extramarital affairs, murder and smuggling wriggle their way into stories about finding a true course, stories wrapped up in ambition, desire and fear. Each of the three points of view [is] distinctive, and Hammes nimbly works to ensure that these separate stories resonate with one another.””