Peter Hedges

“Wonderfully entertaining . . . This distinctive first novel goes down like a chocolate milkshake but boasts the sharpness and finesse of a complex wine” (Publishers Weekly).
 
Gilbert Grape is a twenty-four-year-old grocery store clerk stuck in Endora, Iowa, where the population is 1,091 and shrinking. After the suicide of Gilbert’s father, his family never fully recovered. Once the...

Quirky and rebellious April Burns (Katie Holmes) lives with her boyfriend in a low-rent New York City apartment miles away from her emotionally distant family. But when she discovers that her mother (Patricia Clarkson) has a fatal form of breast cancer, she invites the clan to her place for Thanksgiving. While her father (Oliver Platt) struggles to drive her family into the city, April -- an inexperienced cook -- runs into kitchen trouble and must...

October, 2008. Young nun Colleen (Addison Timlin) is avoiding all contact from her family, until an email from her mother (Ally Sheedy) announces, Your brother is home. On returning to her childhood home in Asheville, NC, she finds her old room exactly how she left it: painted black and covered in goth/metal posters. Her parents are happy enough to see her, but unease and awkwardness abounds. Her brother is living as a recluse in the guesthouse since...

Ben Burns, a drug-addicted teenager, shows up unexpectedly to visit his family on Christmas Eve. His wary mother welcomes him, but after finding out he's still in danger, she must to do everything she can to help her family.

Gilbert lives in Endora, a place where nothing happens. Aside from a secret affair with a housewife, Gilbert spends his days stocking shelves at a grocery store, caring for his mentally handicapped brother, and holding together a large family headed by Mama, a former beauty queen whose weight tops 500 pounds. But just when Gilbert thinks nothing will ever change, a pretty stranger arrives on the scene, capturing Gilbert's heart and inspiring him to...

Will is a good-looking, smooth-talking bachelor whose primary goal in life is to avoid any kind of responsibility. So he decides to invent an imaginary son in order to meet attractive single moms. Will gets a lesson about life from a bright but hopelessly geeky 12-year-old named Marcus. Now, as Will struggles to teach Marcus the art of being cool, Marcus teaches Will that you are never too cool to grow up.

Family outcast April lives in a beat-up apartment in New York's Lower East Side with her boyfriend, Bobby. In order to spend some time with her dying mother, April invites her conservative suburban family to her place for a Thanksgiving feast. While she frantically tries to complete the meal, the family drives in from Pennsylvania sharing less-than-pleasant opinions about April's lifestyle. Her dad tries to think positively, while sister Beth flaunts...

Sigourney Weaver stars as a school nurse who faces the scorn of her community after a friend's child suffers an accident on her property. With Julianne Moore and Chloe Sevigny.