The fortunes and foibles of the eccentric Wapshot family – the suicidal patriarch, his wife, and their children: the licentious older son Moses, and his errant younger brother, Coverly. Cheever takes us from New England to New York and Europe, from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Winner of the National Book Award in 1958. "Richly inventive and vividly told."—The New York Times