The Weight of Him: A Novel

At four hundred pounds, Billy Brennan can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food's colors, textures and tastes. How food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy's beloved son Michael takes his own life.

Billy determines to make a difference in Michael's memory and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign, to raise money for suicide prevention—his first step in an ambitious plan to save himself, and to save others. However, Billy's dramatic crusade appalls his family, who want to simply try to go on.

Despite his crushing detractors, Billy gains welcome allies: his community-at-large; a co-worker who lost his father to suicide; a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda. But not until Billy confronts the truth of his pain and suffering will he discover the changes he, and others like him, need.

Set in rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him is an unforgettable, big-hearted novel about loss that moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we take the stand of our lives

"Ethel Rohan is a writer of great courage and emotional intelligence. She can also tell a damn good story." —Tom Barbash, New York Times–bestselling author of The Dakota Winters

"Rohan's tender, generous, and inspiring debut novel . . .deserves our full appreciation and absorption." —S an Francisco Chronicle