{"product_id":"the-responsible-party","title":"The Responsible Party","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eClaire Carusillo\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer from Illinois. She now lives in Midway, Utah, where co-owns Storyboard, a bookstore, skate shop, and coffee bar. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where she was a teaching fellow. Her writing has appeared all over the internet, including in \n\u003ci\u003eGawker\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eElle\u003c\/i\u003e, and her newsletter, \n\u003ci\u003eThat Wet Look\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Gripping and funny, Carusillo unravels mysteries long buried with precise pacing and dialogue. This is a Hollywood-ready story--a complete knockout.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eDebutiful, \u003c\/i\u003eMost Anticipated Books of 2026 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Carusillo juggles the many plot threads with aplomb and proves to be a consummate prose stylist. This one has energy and ambition to spare.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Claire Carusillo is a clear force, a real, true talent that is surely here to stay: \n\u003ci\u003eThe Responsible Party\u003c\/i\u003e is just the first stop on her epic writer's journey. Everyone just needs to hop on board.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub, \u003c\/i\u003e19 Novels You Need to Read This Summer \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Brilliant, saucy, and addictive, Carusillo's debut has smarts and wildness to spare, heart and speed, too. To read this book is to have your ears blown back, the sheer, powerful wind of it woke me up, and had me thinking for the first time in a long while, wow, this is what fiction can do.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Heidi Julavits, \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eauthor of \u003ci\u003eDirections to Myself \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Folded Clock\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Family dysfunction and inherited trauma have rarely gotten such rich, off-beat, searingly funny treatment. Claire Carusillo is a juggernaut of comic invention and her novel teems with dark wit and feeling. This debut is unsinkable.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Sam Lipsyte, author of \u003ci\u003eHome Land\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Ask, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNo One Left to Come Looking for You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Your poor hatches -- there is simply no way to batten them for the utter brilliance of Claire Carusillo's debut. \n\u003ci\u003eThe Responsible Party\u003c\/i\u003e mesmerizes: chockablock with feats of storytelling, helmed by foremothers who won't be messed with. Virtuosic, jaunty, and exuberant, this book is the work of a dynamic comic genius.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eC. Luchette, author of \u003ci\u003eAgatha of Little Neon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Readers, pay attention: Claire Carusillo is a true original! Sentence by sentence, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Responsible Party\u003c\/i\u003e bends every genre--autofiction, murder mystery, coming of age story, multi-generational novel, you name it, it's all here, from shipwreck to vaudeville--in this fantastically joyous ruckus of a debut.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Victoria Redel, author of \u003ci\u003eI Am You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Claire Carusillo is the funniest person alive, and her ancestresses are the funniest people dead, and \n\u003ci\u003eThe Responsible Party\u003c\/i\u003e is better than perfect: a raucous, astonishingly original novel about ambition, legacy, and the plight of womankind written with unmatched tenacity and bombastic glee. All at once grand and fearless and intimate and precise, this is a symphony and a major debut. I've never read anything like it.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Alexandra Tanner, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWorry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA rollicking, \"unsinkable,\" (Sam Lipsyte) and hilarious debut novel about a family of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eunforgettable women obsessed with securing their legacy, for fans of \u003ci\u003eGeek Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eClaire grew up with the legend of the Unsinkable Mounsey Women. Her great-great-grandmother Fanny made headlines in 1915 for washing ashore in England nearly a year after her ship sank. Fanny's daughter Sarah went to collect her mother on the equally ill-fated \n\u003ci\u003eLusitania\u003c\/i\u003e--whose sinking she, too, survived. Their improbable endurance led to regional stardom on the Midwestern vaudeville circuit. But Claire never knew the full story--until now. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eListless, jobless, and recently canceled for extolling skin-care advice online that sent a reader to the hospital, Claire is surprised when a knock at the door turns out to be the police, looking for answers about a murder from the 1970s they suspect her mother, Kath, may know something about. As the cops zero in, Claire demands answers from her mother. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKath's comically long response, which blossoms into the story of the Mounseys and their descendants writ large, moves from a Liverpudlian poorhouse at the onset of World War I to a Lake Michigan lighthouse in 1971 (when sex was freer and McDonald's fried their potatoes with beef tallow) to present-day Chicagoland; along the way, it offers Claire a richer understanding of what she inherited from the complicated, resilient women she descends from. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReplete with inappropriately old boyfriends, dubious medical professionals, and more than a few boats, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Responsible Party\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of several women, in several different timelines, trying to stay afloat. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/15\/2026 (EAN 9781250408631, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eCarusillo, Claire\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eClaire Carusillo\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer from Illinois. She now lives in Midway, Utah, where she co-owns Storyboard, a bookstore, skate shop, and coffee bar. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where she was a teaching fellow. Her writing has appeared all over the internet, including in \n\u003ci\u003eGawker\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eElle\u003c\/i\u003e, and her newsletter, \n\u003ci\u003eThat Wet Look\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Henry Holt \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496190247190,"sku":"9781250408631","price":34.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781250408631.jpg?v=1783057141","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-responsible-party","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}