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The Second Coming: A novel

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From the New York Times best-selling author of City on Fire comes an intimate epic that plunges us deep into the lives of a troubled teenage girl and her estranged father when he returns home in an attempt to save her. Navigating love, grief, betrayal, and redemption, Jolie and Ethan must find a way to survive as a family. “Beautiful and daring.” —Nathan Hill, author of Oprah’s Book Club pick Wellness • “Breathtaking.” —Christina Baker Kline, author of 1 New York Times best seller Orphan Train Spring, 2011. When thirteen-year-old Jolie Aspern goes down onto the subway tracks to retrieve her dropped phone—and nearly gets hit by a train—the last thing she wants is sympathy from her estranged dad, Ethan. A recovering addict and felon, now living in California, Ethan has long struggled to see beyond himself. But when news of Jolie’s accident reaches him, Ethan comes to fear she’s in more serious trouble than anyone realizes. And believing he’s the only one who can save her, he decides to return home. So begins the journey of Jolie and Ethan, father and daughter, apart and together, different yet the same. It will stretch from Manhattan in the midst of the Great Recession to a remote beach on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where their lives really began. In time, it will push Jolie out past her depth with a mysterious stranger, and Ethan in over his head with his first love—Jolie’s mom. Soaring, aching, full of revelation, The Second Coming is at once an incandescent feat of storytelling and an exploration of an enduring mystery: Can the people we love ever really change? Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf (May 28, 2024)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 608 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593536924


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 26


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.4 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #415,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #4,398 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books) #6,693 in Family Life Fiction (Books) #22,033 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#4,398 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books):


#6,693 in Family Life Fiction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Disjointed poetry
The writing is at times beautiful. The premise of a father trying to save his teenaged daughter from a fate which he cannot save himself from has much potential. But it reads like someone’s psychedelic free-range diary, without form or direction. It was painful to get through, for someone who can devour a book in a day, this has taken me over a month to get within 100 pages of the end. I checked this out from the library and keep getting overdue notices because I still haven’t finished it. The characters are all fairly unlikable, which makes them hard to relate to. I plod on, hoping there is some reward to come for having endured this far. Time will tell… ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2025 by sweetpeamama
    • the second coming
a beautifully written story about family drama, addiction, love, Jolie and Ethan, daughter and father coming together to find each other again, maybe to save each other. A really deep book, so you have to spend some time reading it, not rush through it. Worth the time spent.
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024 by charlene
    • All over the place, but notable writing
Teen depression, estranged parents, a holiday road trip, and a lifetime of trouble form the framework for Garth RIsk Hallberg's second novel. Dad Ethan moved from New York to California in an attempt to get a grip on his addiction. Already a convicted felon and divorced from his daughter's mother, he heads east when he learns that Jolie seems to have considered throwing herself in front of a subway train. He sees himself at age 13 and fears he knows what might be to come. Hallberg is a gorgeous writer, but there is too much of this book. It reminded me of Infinite Jest, another novel that it was very hard to get through; in fact, I'm not sure I did. I stuck with The Second Coming (the title has no religious significance but refers to a book by the artist known at that time as Prince.) There are some readers who may fall in love with this novel--I suspect they are guys who also love David Foster Wallace. There are some plangent observations about the human condition but the premise did not pay off for me. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2024 by Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
    • Very long and slow
4 stars This would have absolutely been a 5, but I really struggled to get through it. The writing was beautiful, challenging at times. The story took us through three generations of a family. It was a good book, but slow. So so slow. Maybe it was the heaviness of it all. The darkness of the characters and what they are hiding. The lack of timeline or mixed up one. I’m not really sure. I do know that I did enjoy this epic, but also disliked it in many ways. Jolie is a teenager, the product of two other teenagers, now divorced and estranged. While her father, Ethan, is hiding out on Catalina Island in the Pacific Ocean, and her mother is hiding in plain view, Jolie is struggling to keep her life together. She’s recently found alcohol to be her best friend, blurring the realities of her world in New York City. Jolie is unhappy. Her father is gone, her mother virtually absent, and here she is, trying to navigate her teens, feeling all but alone. Throughout the novel we will find out how Jolie’s parents got together. How her father ended up hiding out on an exclusive island off California. The grandparents, Albert & Eleanor, and their reluctance to accept their son-in-law, and their adoration of their granddaughter. Father Ethan’s long since passed mother & father, and his sister. The people who pass through all their lives and somehow shape Jolie’s in the process. And finally, how Jolie eventually finds herself. As I said, this was an excruciatingly hard novel to finish. I don’t know why it felt like slogging through mud the entire time. Especially since the story was, in many ways, really quite amazing. It gets a 5 for the story, 3 for the pace. A novel that I’m happy I read, but glad I won’t be reading again. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024 by Bookwormish Me
    • Mostly ZZZZ"s
I am sure many people will love this novel but not so much me. Risk is a very smart knowledgeable writer. But I have some issues. There are several main characters (three in particular) but all the characters go on long introspective narratives, but they all seem like they are coming from the same character in the way they look at things. (all very anal retentive). In nearly six hundred pages there only about one hundred of dialogue which I liked. All the micro introspection put me to sleep. Some will love all the detail, I guess. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2024 by muddyboy1
    • Sophisticated writing style
Can the people we love ever really change? Know going in that this is not a religious book, despite the title. This focuses on the estranged relationship between a troubled teenage girl, her addict father, and her helpless and hopeless mother. The reading is sophisticated and refined, it requires attention and focus, time to take in each word and page. I found parts to be difficult to get through more because of the writing style that I am not accustomed to, not because of the content. I am impressed by the talent the author has, and found that the style greatly affected the content to be something more grand and profound than another style would not have been able to do. Though it was not an easy read and was oftentimes complex, I was drawn to the story, to the characters and their lives, and to the mental and physical journey daughter and father endure and embrace. “An intimate epic that plunges us deep into the lives of a teenage girl and her father as they navigate love, grief, betrayal, and redemption.” #thesecondcoming #netgalley #bookreview ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024 by MelDav
    • DNF
I can't say I enjoyed this book, so I had to DNF at 32%. I never ever DNF but I felt this book was going to push me into a reading slump. The Second Coming is the story of Jolie, a 14 year old who is subject to an accident on the NYC subway that causes her absent dad to come back into her life from California, where Ethan took off to rehab from drug addiction. This book had a good premise and some bits were interesting, but the majority of the book dragged badly. Definitely not engaging enough to read all 600+ pages. Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024 by Cynthia V.

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