Peter Hedges

Adapted into the classic 1993 film starring Johnny Depp as Gilbert and Leonardo DiCaprio in his Academy Award–nominated role as Arnie, What's Eating Gilbert Grape is the touching and entertaining story of an unusual family that rises up to do the astonishing… Gilbert Grape is a 24-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 recovered. Once...

Tim Welch is a popular history teacher at the Montague Academy, an exclusive private school in Brooklyn Heights. His wife Kate stays home with their two young sons in a modest apartment, trying desperately to become the parent she never had. They are seemingly the last middle-class family in the Heights, whose world is turned upside down by Anna Brody, the new neighbor who moves into the most expensive brownstone in Brooklyn, sending the local society...

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.

Dan Burns is a local newspaper advice columnist. He has three daughters and is a widower. He brings the family to his parent's house for a family gathering. When Dan goes to a local bookstore, he meets Marie. When he gets home, he finds out that Marie is actually dating his brother Mitch. Dan's mother Nana announces that she met an old acquaintance of Dan's, Ruthie Draper and that she has set up a date between Dan and Ruthie. Dan refuses to go. Mitch...

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...

When a drug addict surprises his family by returning home on Christmas Eve, he and his mother realize that they must rebuild their relationship.

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...