Disturbing the Peace A Novel

Hailed as "America's finest realistic novelist" by theBoston Globe,Richard Yates, author ofRevolutionary Road,garnered rare critical acclaim for his bracing, unsentimental portraits of middle-class American life.Disturbing the Peaceis no exception. Haunting, troubling, and mesmerizing, it shines a brilliant, unwavering light into the darkest recesses of a man's psyche. To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong. Something has disturbed John's fragile peace, and he can no longer find solace in fleeting affairs or alcohol. The anger, the drinking, and the recklessness are building to a crescendoand they're about to take down John's career and his family. What happens next will send John on a long, strange journeyat once tragic and inevitable. From the Trade Paperback edition.

A native New Yorker, Richard Yates was born in 1926; his first novel, Revolutionary Road, was a finalist for the National Book Award (in the same year as The Moviegoer and Catch-22). Much admired by peers, he was known during his lifetime as the foremost fiction writer of the post-war "age of anxiety." He published his last novel in 1986, and died in 1992.