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About Dirk Wittenborn
Books by Dirk Wittenborn

Pharmakon, or The Story of a Happy Family

A Novel
Dirk Wittenborn - Author
$15.00
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eBook: Adobe reader | 416 pages | ISBN 9781101080276 | 30 Jun 2009 | Penguin
Additional Formats:
Paperback: $15.00
eBook - eReader: $15.00
eBook - Microsoft Reader: $15.00
Pharmakon, or The Story of a Happy Family
An honest, insightful , and ruefully funny look at the fate of one American family vis-à-vis the rise of modern psychopharmacology, Pharmakon, or The Story of a Happy Family is nothing less than a contemporary epic. The novel follows William Friedrich, an ambitious professor of psychology at Yale in the early 1950s, who has stumbled upon a drug that promises happiness to those who ingest it and fame and fortune to the man who can synthesize it. But when a brilliant and troubled research subject commits murder, the consequences will haunt Friedrich and his family for years to come.

“A smart, eccentric coming-of-age story about an entire culture’s maturation process.”
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“ A rattling good tale . . . Wittenborn describes the mind of a cracked genius with great gusto and inventiveness . . . [Pharmakon’s] pleasures are many.”
The New York Times Book Review

“Epically entertaining.”
Vogue

“ John Irving is a benevolent influence on Wittenborn’s work.”
The Times Literary Supplement

“No one who has ever been part of a family can fail to feel pangs of recognition.”
—Jay McInerney

“A fascinating portrait of a family living on the edge.”
—Richard Price


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