The Corrections English 2026

'The first great American novel of the twenty-first century' ELLE

'Gluttonously fun, plotted like a museum heist' TONY TULATHIMUTTE

'Funny, poignant, soulful and savage' ELIZABETH DAY

After fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband Alfred is losing his sanity, and their children have long since fled for the catastrophes of their own lives. As Alfred's condition worsens and the Lamberts are forced to face their secrets and failures, Enid sets her heart on one last family Christmas.

Bringing the old world of civic virtue and sexual inhibition into violent collision with the era of hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare and globalised greed, The Corrections is a generous, perceptive and moving family epic. This 25th anniversary edition, complete with a new foreword from the author himself, celebrates Franzen as one of the most brilliant interpreters of the American soul.