$16 The Most - by Jessica Anthony (Paperback)

Updated August 20, 2026

This auction ended on August 25, 2026. See upcoming auctions from Mad Bids Brampton or current comics & books auctions.

Lot number	723
Category	Comics & Books
Auction	Mad Bids Brampton - Overstock, Electronic, Return Freight 49
Date	August 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM CDT
Auction house	Mad Bids Brampton
Location	Brampton

Brand: Little Brown and Company Condition: Open Box - Not Tested In Packaging?: Yes Assembly Required?: No Damaged?: No Functional?: Yes Missing Parts?: No Star Rating: 0.0 UPC: 9780316576376 Title: $16 The Most - by Jessica Anthony (Paperback) About the Book "An expertly compressed, post-modern historical novella set over the course of a single, unseasonably warm day in November of 1957. Kathleen, a standout college tennis player, mother of two boys and wife to flagrantly handsome, aimless life insurance salesman, Virgil, decides to get into the pool in their Delaware apartment complex instead of going to church. And she won't come out. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth carrying that poor little doomed Soviet space dog, Kathleen and Virgil hurtle toward each other, and toward a reckoning that will either shatter the smooth edifice of their marriage or transform it, at last, into something real"-- Book Synopsis Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction. One of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2024. One of the Washington Post's Best Books of 2024 . From "one of our most thrilling and singular innovators on the page" (Laura Van Den Berg), a tightly wound, consuming tale about a 1950s American housewife who goes for a swim in her apartment complex's swimming pool one morning...and won't come out. It's November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn't particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won't come out. A riveting, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most masterly breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath. Review Quotes "Anthony's domestic drama closely examines the makings of a certain kind of mid-century American couple and what happens when one half of that pair decides that everything must change."--TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024"A perfect little novel that feels like a classic American piece of literature...it is tight and funny and interesting, it has great playfulness and I think anybody who wants to read something different - this is for you!"--SUZANNA HERMANS from Oblong Books, WAMC "The Roundtable""Jessica Anthony's spare, elegant novella... is darkly funny in its own way, and in the end is less a comedy than a smoldering, Cheeveresque mediation on mid-century, middle-class disappointment."--THE WASHINGTON POST"Distilling this novel down to just these elements misses its other dimensions, how it captures an anxiety both specific to its time and broadly rel

$16 The Most - by Jessica Anthony (Paperback)

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