Imprint Friday: The Blind Spy by Alex Dryden

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

After the break up of the Soviet Union, a entire genre of fiction faced the possibility of extinction. Thanks to Alex Dryden and his Anna Resnikov novels, spy thriller fans can breath easy again. The Blind Spy, which came out in March, is Dryden's third in a series but can easily be read as a standalone novel.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Russia has never accepted Ukraine's independence and now the Patrioti—Putin, his elder statesmen, and seasoned generals dedicated to rebuilding their fallen empire—are using the KGB's controversial elite and clandestine forces of Department S to destabilize the young democratic nation and bring it back under Russian control.

But Cougar, the powerful private intelligence company that overshadows even the CIA in its reach, learns of Russia's plans and strikes at the heart of its plot with its own lethal weapon—the gorgeous ex–KGB colonel Anna Resnikov. More than a gifted spy and expert killer, Anna lost the love of her life and the father of her child at the hands of her former countrymen. Her defection to Cougar has made her the most wanted woman in Russia, but she'll risk any danger to herself for the chance to destroy the evil that rules her homeland. And on the ground in Ukraine, she meets a formidable foe, a mysterious KGB spy whose aims are suspiciously unclear but whose power is unmistakably deadly.

The Blind Spy starts in Damascus in the 1970s, when cold-war Soviet spy Lieutenant Valentin Viktorov discovers he has a son, the result of a one-night stand with a Syrian woman. After leaving the infant on the doorstep of an orphanage, Valentin returns to the USSR.

The story then jumps to Moscow in Putin's Russia, where Valentin's son, Dmitry, is now in his late 30s and is himself an elite spy for his father's homeland. Dmitry, however, is no ordinary man; although he has been blind since birth, he is blessed with an almost psychic talent to disguise his disability. The current mission for Putin's Department S agents? To find a way to bring Ukraine back under Russian control.

Enter Anna Resnikov, ex-KGB officer now working for the West, whose task is to undermine Putin's plans. Once she's on the trail of the blind spy--or is it really that Dmitry's on her trail?--the action really takes off. Thanks to believable characterizations, twisty plots, and vivid descriptions, Dryden has successfully revived the spy vs. spy genre for twenty-first-century readers.

Now for some other opinions (click on the links for the full reviews):

• From Publishers Weekly: "Dryden’s personal knowledge and experience of both the British security services and Russia’s intelligence apparatus informs his fine third entry . . . in a series grounded less in physical action than in the twisting intellectual gamesmanship that makes the shadow world of espionage so compelling."
• From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "His thrillers are thus an extended clarion call to arms, despite their spy-thriller guise. And as guises go, Dryden's books are doozies. They're exceptionally intelligent examples of the genre."
• From BookLoons Reviews: "A former spy and international security expert turned novelist, [Dryden] knows what he's writing about and is able to wring every ounce of suspense and riveting action from his authentic thrillers."

For more on Alex Dryden, visit his website or follow him on Twitter.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

The Blind Spy at an Indie

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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, March 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062088086

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Imprint Friday: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Harper Perennial. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Despite the flood of dystopian novels in the last few years, I never tire of genre. The books that particularly catch my attention are those that take place in the not-so-distant future and paint a fairly believable world. Jane Rogers's The Testament of Jessie Lamb is a literary and feminist look at one possible scenario.

Here's the publisher's summary:

A rogue virus that kills pregnant women has been let loose in the world, and nothing less than the survival of the human race is at stake.

Some blame the scientists, others see the hand of God, and still others claim that human arrogance and destructiveness are reaping the punishment they deserve. Jessie Lamb is an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl living in extraordinary times. As her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her toward the ultimate act of heroism. She wants her life to make a difference. But is Jessie heroic? Or is she, as her scientist father fears, impressionable, innocent, and incapable of understanding where her actions will lead?

Set in a world irreparably altered by an act of biological terrorism, The Testament of Jessie Lamb explores a young woman's struggle to become independent of her parents. As the certainties of her childhood are ripped apart, Jessie begins to question her parents' attitudes, their behavior, and the very world they have bequeathed her.

Like many a teenager, Jessie pays little attention to politics and the big issues that adults discuss around the dinner table. She and her friends never think to question the nature of their culture or the human-built world around them. Only when the effects of maternal death syndrome (MDS) begin to hit close to home does Jessie start to pay attention and eventually take a moral stand.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb asks some big questions about what happens when human rights are stripped away and about individual obligations for saving humanity. What if the only way for humans to reproduce was for women to volunteer to bear immunized test-tube babies? The catch is that the babies would live, but the mothers would not. What would make you chose to be both hero and victim at the same time? As Jessie evaluates her life so far and looks to the future, she must make some hard decisions before her freedom of choice is taken away from her.

Because Jane Rogers brings up so many issues relevant to today's political climate, The Testament of Jessie Lamb would make a great book club pick. Topics for discussion include bioterrorism, women's rights, reproductive rights, moral issues surrounding medical practices, and parents' power over their children. Readers seem to be divided about the target audience of this dystopian novel, but despite the teenage protagonist, the themes seem to be geared toward adults. Read it, discuss it, and you be the judge.

Here are some other views (click on the links for the full review):

• Liviu writing at Fantasy Book Critic: "foremost it is a voice novel which kept me hooked me from the first to the last page with its poignant and emotional style."
• Christa writing at Hooked on Books: "There is so much I loved about this book . . . . But the best thing is the range of emotions it provokes while you're reading it."
• Katy Guest writing for The Independent: "The novel does not set up an elaborate apocalypse, but astringently strips away the smears hiding the apocalypses we really face. Like Jessie's, it is a small, calm voice of reason in a nonsensical world."
• For a variety of opinions both positive and negative, see the Book Club discussion in the comments at Linus's Blanket. (Warning: comments contain spoilers.)

The Testament of Jessie Lamb was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for an Arthur C. Clarke award. For more on Jane Rogers, visit her website or like her Facebook page.

Harper Perennial is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For information about the imprint, please read Erica Barmash's welcome note posted here on June 18, 2010. I encourage you to add your reviews of Harper Perennial books to the review link-up page; it's a great way to discover Good Books for Cool People. And don't miss the The Olive Reader, the Harper Perennial blog.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb at an Indie

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Published by Harper Perennial, May 15, 2012 (HP edition)
ISBN-13: 9780062130808

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Imprint Friday: All Woman and Springtime by Brandon W. Jones

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Algonquin Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Until this year I'm not sure I had read any books that took place in Korea and certainly none that talked about life north of the DMZ. Debut author Brandon W. Jones was inspired to write All Woman and Springtime after thinking about the ramifications of living in a tightly controlled society.

Here is the back-of-the-book summary:

Before she met Il-sun in an orphanage, Gi was a hollow husk of a girl, broken from growing up in one of North Korea’s forced-labor camps. A mathematical genius, she has learned to cope with pain by retreating into a realm of numbers and calculations, an escape from both the past and present. Gi becomes enamored of the brash and radiant Il-sun, a friend she describes as "all woman and springtime." But Il-sun’s pursuit of a better life imperils both girls when her suitor spirits them across the Demilitarized Zone and sells them as sex workers, first in South Korea and then in the United States.

This spellbinding debut, reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha, depicts—with chilling accuracy—life behind North Korea’s iron curtain. But for Gi and Il-sun, forced into the underworld of human trafficking, their captivity outside North Korea is far crueler than the tight control of their "Dear Leader." Tenderhearted Gi, just on the verge of womanhood, is consigned to a fate that threatens not only her body but her mind. How she and Il-sun endure, how they find a path to healing, is what drives this absorbing and exquisite novel—from an exciting young Algonquin discovery—to its perfectly imagined conclusion.

There are several things about this novel that intrigue me, but I'm particularly interested in everyday life in North Korea. As Jones notes in an interview provided by Algonquin, it is "difficult to get reliable information out of the country." Although the bulk of his research was conducted in libraries and online, he was fortunate enough to track down a couple of firsthand accounts, which helped him create a fairly authentic description of life under Kim Jong-il.

The other aspect of All Woman and Springtime that caught my attention is its focus on sex trafficking. For those of us who live in free, modern countries, it's hard to believe that sex slavery still occurs. One important point Jones makes is that sex trafficking may start in underdeveloped countries but its victims often end up in the major metropolitan areas of our own countries. Something to think about.

This is a novel that can be read from a number of viewpoints. It certainly discusses the political and social issues I just mentioned, but it's also about friendship, survival, and a rather brutal awakening into adulthood. In a post on The Page 69 Test, Jones says, "All Woman and Springtime is about crossing boundaries of all kinds, about universal humanity that transcends borders and cultures, about taking charge of one’s own destiny."

Here a quick peek into the novel. On the first page, Gi is watching the sewing machine needle while working in a factory:

She watched intently as the needle danced across the rough fabric, plunging in and out of the cloth with methodic violence—she was amazed the fabric did not bleed. It was a paradox of sewing, that such brutality could bind two things together.

And so it was to be between Gi and her friend Il-sun.

All Woman and Springtime is an Indie Next pick for May 2012. To learn more about Brandon Jones, visit his website. There you'll find an excerpt from the novel, an audiobook sample, a fascinating essay on the writing of the book, and Jones's tour schedule. You can also follow him on Twitter and like his Facebook page.


Algonquin Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Executive Editor Chuck Adams's introductory letter, posted here on January 7, 2011.

All Woman and Springtime at an Indie

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Published by Workman / Algonquin Books, May 2012
ISBN-13: 9781616200770

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Imprint Friday: The Cove by Ron Rash

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I'll admit it right up front: I know Ron Rash is an award-winning author but I hadn't read any of his work until I picked up The Cove, published just last week. The next thing I have to say is this: Now I want to read every word Rash has written; all the praise and honors are sincerely deserved. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina during World War I, The Cove is a haunting story of prejudice and fear, family and love.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Deep in the rugged Appalachians of North Carolina lies the cove, a dark, forbidding place where spirits and fetches wander, and even the light fears to travel. Or so the townsfolk of Mars Hill believe—just as they know that Laurel Shelton, the lonely young woman who lives within its shadows, is a witch. Alone except for her brother, Hank, newly returned from the trenches of France, she aches for her life to begin.

Then it happens—a stranger appears, carrying nothing but a beautiful silver flute and a note explaining that his name is Walter, he is mute, and is bound for New York. Laurel finds him in the woods, nearly stung to death by yellow jackets, and nurses him back to health. As the days pass, Walter slips easily into life in the cove and into Laurel's heart, bringing her the only real happiness she has ever known.

But Walter harbors a secret that could destroy everything—and danger is closer than they know. Though the war in Europe is near its end, patriotic fervor flourishes thanks to the likes of Chauncey Feith, an ambitious young army recruiter who stokes fear and outrage throughout the county. In a time of uncertainty, when fear and ignorance reign, Laurel and Walter will discover that love may not be enough to protect them.

This lyrical, heart-rending tale, as mesmerizing as its award-winning predecessor Serena, shows once again this masterful novelist at the height of his powers.

I was so taken with The Cove, I barely know where to begin to tell you about it. A truly great novel is more than believable characters, a vivid setting, and a well-crafted plot. When an author can create a mood, a world that draws you in so completely you feel almost as if you were in a dream state, that's a book you'll remember for years to come. Although I've loved many books, only a few have created that feeling for me, and three took place in the southern Appalachians: Gap Creek, Cold Mountain, and now The Cove.

There are many kinds of prejudice besides those based on race, religion, and gender. The citizens of Mars Hill have turned against the Sheltons because Laurel was born with a port wine birthmark. The townspeople blame every bit of bad luck on the girl, who clearly has the ability to cast powerful curses. At the same time Chauncey fuels the flames of hatred for all things Hun, from the professor of German at the local college to the librarian who allows German-language books to remain in the stacks. He even questions the circumstances that earned Hank his Purple Heart, after all the combat veteran is a Shelton. Aren't other local boys more deserving of honors?

Against this backdrop, Laurel and Hank yearn for basic human needs: love, family, friendship, and happiness. With the help of sympathetic neighbors and the mute Walter, the siblings begin to see some hope for a better future. But it's with increasing dread that we watch as Laurel and Hank begin to believe and dream. Rash has lured us in, and we can't let go of the bait.

And now for some other opinions (click on the links for the full reviews):

• Melissa Maerz, writing for Entertainment Weekly: "[I]t's clear that The Cove isn't just an elegant work of literary fiction, written in a voice that's hauntingly simple and Southern; it's also a riveting mystery."
• Nancy at A Musing Reviews: "It is not a fast paced novel yet I could not put the book down. The writing is beautiful, the story intriguing and metaphorical."
• Kirkus Reviews: "What might have been trite and formulaic is anything but in Rash’s fifth novel, a dark tale of Appalachian superstition and jingoism so good it gives you chills."

The Cove was an Indie Next pick for April 2012. For more on Ron Rash, see his author page on the publisher's website.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

The Cove at an Indie

The Cove at Powell's

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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, April 2012
ISBN-13: 9780061804199

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Imprint Friday: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

You might not recognize the author of today's featured title by her name, Jenny Lawson, but I bet you recognize her online persona: The Bloggess, both the name of her very popular and successful blog and her Twitter handle. I have always loved Lawson's sense of humor, so I knew I had to read her new book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir).

Here's the publisher's summary:

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

Lawson's long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments--the ones we want to pretend never happened--are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started.

You might be like me: As soon as someone tells me a book or a movie is laugh-out-loud funny, I'm immediately on guard and sure that I'll not be doing any guffawing. Jenny Lawson, however, is the exception. It's difficult for me to believe anyone could get through her memoir without truly laughing.

No matter how insane you think your own life has been, I bet Lawson has you beat. As I said in my review for the SheKnows Book Lounge, "Whether she's scaring the vultures off her half-buried dog, learning throw-cushion etiquette at her mother-in-law's, or arguing with her husband via sticky notes, Lawson's sharp, self-directed wit is contagious." You might be tempted to think (more than once) that there's very little true in the "mostly true" part of the memoir, but Lawson anticipated this reaction and has provided photographic proof, including a snapshot to go along with this:

Half of a squirrel arrived in the mail today. It was the front part, almost down to the belly button, and it was mounted on a tiny wooden plaque.

It was odd. Both because I was not expecting any squirrel parts and because the squirrel was dressed in full cowboy regalia. (p. 289)

There's more to the story, but I'll let you read it yourself.

In more than 30 short chapters, Lawson talks about her childhood, her husband, motherhood, and her work in human resources. Fans of The Bloggess blog need not fear that Lawson is covering old ground; almost all of Let's Pretend This Never Happened contains never-before-revealed (mostly true) events.

Here are some other opinions (click on the links for the full review):

• Mandy from the Well-Read Wife: "If I were the type of book blog that had a ratings system, I would give her ten million gold stars and one humanely deceased, taxidermied unicorn head mounted on a purple plaque. That’s how much I loved this memoir."
• Jennifer Miner writing from Moms LA: "You’ll laugh, you’ll snort, you’ll want to write The Bloggess a fan letter. One thing you won’t do is regret buying Jenny’s book. It’s great."
• Jess from Don't Mind the Mess: "When I read this book, it was like making a good friend. Don’t you love that experience?"

To learn more about Jenny Lawson, start reading The Bloggess, follow her on Twitter, or like her Facebook page. Lawson has given a number of interviews, including one with Booktopia.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened at an Indie

Let's Pretend This Never Happened at Powell's

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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780399159015

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Imprint Friday: Next Stop by Glen Finland

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

If you're a parent, you might remember teaching your child how to take public transportation. You might even remember the day your kid took the bus by himself. Glen Finland remembers clearly, because she practiced all summer with her twenty-one-year-old son, and even then, she was scared when he set off to ride the D.C. Metro alone for the first time. Next Stop: A Memoir of Family spirals around Finland's son David, who has been diagnosed with autism.

Here's the publisher's summary.

Next Stop is the universal story of how children grow up and parents learn to let go—no matter how difficult it may be for both of them.

The summer David Finland was twenty-one, he and his mother rode the Washington, D.C., metro trains. Every day. The goal was that if David could learn the train lines, maybe David could get a job. And then maybe he could move out on his own. And then maybe his parents’ marriage could get the jump-start it craved. Maybe. Next Stop is a candid portrait of a differently-abled young man poised at the entry to adulthood. It recounts the complex relationship between a child with autism and his family, as he steps out into the real world alone for the first time, and how his autism affects everyone who loves him.

All parents wonder about the day their children will leave home for good. It's a bittersweet time of pride and worry. For the Finland family, that day may never come for David. Although he can hold down some jobs (working at the ballpark), he has trouble with others (working at the grocery store), and his prospects of moving beyond minimum wage and receiving benefits are slim.

But David's story, of course, doesn't start when he's a legal adult. Almost from the day he was born, David was different from his older brothers—physically, mentally, and socially. Finland talks about his life in a straightforward, easy-to-read manner. She makes no judgments, and she asks for no sympathy. As she says, "When you meet one autistic person, you have met one autistic person." There are few universals when it comes to individual quirks and tics.

On the other hand, millions of families have had to learn to live with and help a troubled or different child. All parents of such children seesaw between wanting to hold on and needing to let go, between accepting limitations and refusing to give up. All siblings of such children also suffer. Some seem to understand why their brother or sister is the center of attention; others, like David's brother Max, are sometimes reduced to wondering why they can't be the star. If you're lucky, like the Finlands, then love and the relentless striving to do whatever can be done will hold everyone together, despite the bouts of anger, sadness, and acting-out. I suspect that not all families do as well.

Although Next Stop is about a family "who know[s] not to expect a fairy-tale ending," David Finland's story is not without its miracles. No matter your parental status, you can't help but be moved by the Finlands. They are an ordinary couple who have risen to extraordinary heights to give their son the best possible chance for an independent life.

To help kick off April's National Autism Awareness Month, Glen Finland talked to the Washington Post about autism, her own experiences, and Next Stop. On that page you'll also find a link to her article "Doors Opening," which eventually led Finland to write her memoir. To learn more about Finland, visit her website, follow her on Twitter, or like her Facebook page.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Next Stop at an Indie

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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780399158605

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Imprint Friday: The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Harper Perennial. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Nick Arvin's new novel The Reconstructionist is about a man obsessed with car accidents and with his past. In fact, Ellis Barstow is an automotive forensic engineer whose half-brother died in an accident and whose boss is married to a women who used to date his dead brother. I'll tell you a bit more in a second, but first, read the publisher's summary:

One instant can change an entire lifetime.

As a boy, Ellis Barstow heard the sound of the collision that killed Christopher, his older half brother—an accident that would haunt him for years. A decade later, searching for purpose after college, Ellis takes a job as a forensic reconstructionist, investigating and re-creating the details of fatal car accidents—under the guidance of the irascible John Boggs, who married Christopher's girlfriend. Ellis takes naturally to the work, fascinated by the task of trying to find reason, and justice, within the seemingly random chaos of smashed glass and broken lives. But Ellis is harboring secrets of his own—not only his memory of the car crash that killed his brother but also his feelings for Boggs's wife, Heather, which soon lead to a full-blown affair. And when Boggs inexplicably disappears, Ellis sets out to find him . . . and to try to make sense of the crash site his own life has become.

Raising a host of universal questions—Can science ever explain matters of the heart? Can we ever escape the gravitational pull of the past?—Nick Arvin's novel is at once deeply moving and compulsively readable.

Ellis Barstow's tangled life is difficult to sort out. Why would he choose a career in analyzing vehicular accidents, when they serve only to remind him of one of the tragic, defining moments of his life? One attraction, of course, is that his boss and mentor, Boggs, is married to Heather. And Heather has fascinated Ellis since he was thirteen years old. But is Heather a bridge to healing or the ax that rips his world apart?

Although Ellis's job is to make sense of accidents, explaining them in minute scientific detail, he has less success understanding the pivotal accidental moments in his own life. Perhaps he is looking at things from the wrong angle. As Boggs is fond of saying:

"I don't really know what an accident is." . . .

"Everything . . . depends on the contingent and the adventitious . . . and if some people make some decisions that result in the physical interference of one vehicle with another in an intersection, and that can be called an accident, then what can't be called an accident? Where my footsteps fall, where I place my hands, where I sit, where I stand, how I appear in the world, who I speak to, the kind of work I do, who I befriend, who I fall in love with?" Boggs pouted. "Accident?"

And so what in the lives of Ellis, Boggs, and Heather is the result of chance?

Arvin's prose is easy to read, drawing you in and teasing you with hints of the possible ending. You might work it all out before the last page, but I couldn't. The Reconstructionist starts out strong as a character-driven novel. After one of the key scenes about halfway through the novel, however, Ellis and Boggs set out on a chase / tour of crash sites they have worked on together. At this point the novel changes personality and the knotty connections among the men, Heather, the accidents, and the past become more complicated.

I was buckled in for the whole ride, questioning the meaning of fate, coincidence, and memory right along with Ellis. For readers who stay onboard, Arvin leaves them with plenty to discuss and think about.

Harper Perennial is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For information about the imprint, please read Erica Barmash's welcome note posted here on June 18, 2010. I encourage you to add your reviews of Harper Perennial books to the review link-up page; it's a great way to discover Good Books for Cool People. And don't miss the The Olive Reader, the Harper Perennial blog.

The Reconstructionist at an Indie

The Reconstructionist at Powell's

The Reconstructionist at Book Depository
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Published by Harper Perennial, March 2012
ISBN-13: 9780061995163

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Imprint Friday: The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

New York has always been tough, but in the 1840s, the city was a particular kind of hell for the fainthearted and the poor. Gangs, prostitution, sweatshops, and slums collided with people of all religions, nationalities, cultures, and languages. It's a fascinating point in New York history, and when I heard Lyndsay Faye's The Gods of Gotham was set at just that time and in one of the worst of the city's wards, I knew I had to give it a try.

Here's the publisher's summary:

1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.

Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward-at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.

One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl-a girl not more than ten years old-dashing through the dark in her nightshift . . . covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.

Plan some free time before you pick up The Gods of Gotham; like as not, you'll be reluctant to put it down once you get started. Faye's talent is evident on many levels in this historical mystery. By the time you finish the short prologue, you'll have a clear sense of Timothy Wilde, and he's just the first of several vivid characters you'll meet. In addition, Faye brilliantly captures the heart and soul of the seedier and more dangerous side of New York in the 1840s. We hear the accents and slang, we sense the hustle on the streets, we feel the breeze through the window, and we wrinkle our nose at the stench.

But what about the story itself? Here, Faye does a masterful job of interspersing the principal timeline with a welcome mix of background information and subtle foreshadowing that blend well with the plot. One device Faye uses is to circle around an event, so, for example, we learn of the blood-covered girl via three or four avenues before the child makes her appearance. Instead of being repetitious, it whets our appetite, and we need to know more. At the same time, The Gods of Gotham doesn't give all its secrets freely, leaving room for a few surprises before the tale is done.

The Gods of Gotham will appeal to a wide variety of readers, among them are fans of historical fiction, history, mystery, character-driven stories, and literary fiction.

As I often do, I'd like to share a trio of other opinions (click the links to read the full reviews):

• Julie of Booking Mama: "THE GODS OF GOTHAM is an outstanding example of well-crafted mystery as well as a fascinating historical novel. It really is the best of both worlds."
• Kirkus Reviews: "No one is precisely what they seem in Faye’s richly imagined, superbly plotted narrative, which delivers not one, not two, but three bravura twists as Timothy tracks the killer."
• Publisher's Weekly: " Vivid period details, fully formed characters, and a blockbuster of a twisty plot put Faye in a class with Caleb Carr."

To learn more about Lyndsay Faye, visit her website or follow her on Twitter. Book clubs and other readers will want to see the reading guide, available on the publisher's website.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Gods of Gotham at an Indie

The Gods of Gotham at Powell's

The Gods of Gotham at Book Depository
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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780399158377

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Imprint Friday: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I first learned about Greek mythology and The Illiad and The Odyssey in sixth grade, and I've been fascinated ever since. Madeline Miller has also had a lifelong love affair with the ancient Greeks, their gods, and their tales. The result for Miller is her debut novel The Song of Achilles; for me, it's the pleasure of reading her work.

Here's the publisher's summary:

The legend begins . . .

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. “The best of all the Greeks”—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece, bound by blood and oath, must lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Built on the groundwork of the Iliad, Madeline Miller’s page-turning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic Trojan War marks the launch of a dazzling career.

I've only just started reading The Song of Achilles, but it's the kind of book that you open to the first page just to see what it's going to be like, and suddenly 40 pages later you realize you're already hooked, already immersed in the world of the ancient Greeks. I think it's Miller's lovely mix of rigorous research with her emotional and personal connection to Homer's Illiad that draws us.

Miller's version of the Trojan War focuses on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, told from the latter's point of view, and begins years before Helen is abducted / runs away. In the following quote, the boys' relationship is just beginning:

I saw then how I had changed. I did not mind anymore that I lost when we raced and I lost when we swam out to the rocks and I lost when we tossed spears or skipped stones. For who can be ashamed to lose to such beauty? It was enough to watch him win, to see the soles of his feet flashing as they kicked up sand, or the rise and fall of his shoulders as he pulled through the salt. It was enough. (p. 51)

I'm no scholar of the ancient Greeks, but I'm familiar with The Illiad, and I love that Miller has made Homer so accessible while remaining respectful of the original. I'm impressed with the beauty of her writing and that she has not diluted the tale but has made it more.

Here are some other opinions (click the links for the full reviews):

• Meghan at Medieval Bookworm: "This is truly a fantastic retelling, one that manages to be both timeless and relevant."
• Publisher's Weekly: "With language both evocative of her predecessors and fresh, and through familiar scenes that explore new territory, this first-time novelist masterfully brings to life an imaginative yet informed vision of ancient Greece."
• Natalie Haynes for The Guardian: "Miller spent 10 years writing this book, yet her smooth prose conceals the painstaking research she has clearly put into it. This is a deeply affecting version of the Achilles story"

The Song of Achilles is an Indie Next pick for March 2012. For more on Madeline Miller, read her interview with Gregory Maguire, visit her website, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

The Song of Achilles at an Indie

The Song of Achilles at Powell's

The Song of Achilles at Book Depository
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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, March 6, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062060617

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Imprint Friday: Londoners by Craig Taylor

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Back in 1974, when I was in college, a book about Americans at work was taking the reading world by storm. That book was Working by Studs Terkel, and it consisted of interviews of hundreds of people employed in every kind of job imaginable and from all over the country. I bought it, even on my undergrad budget, and I still have my original copy.

When I heard Craig Taylor had written Londoners, a similar book about modern London, I knew I had to have it. Not only because I loved Working but because I spent some time in London finishing up my doctoral research at the Natural History Museum. I lived well east of South Ken, and for the first and only time in my life, I became a big-city commuter who rode the tube at least twice a day, every day.

Enough about me, take a look at the publisher's summary.

Five years in the making, Londoners is a fresh and compulsively readable view of one of the world's most fascinating cities—a vibrant narrative portrait of the London of our own time, featuring unforgettable stories told by the real people who make the city hum.

Acclaimed writer and editor Craig Taylor has spent years traversing every corner of the city, getting to know the most interesting Londoners, including the voice of the London Underground, a West End rickshaw driver, an East End nightclub doorperson, a mounted soldier of the Queen's Life Guard at Buckingham Palace, and a couple who fell in love at the Tower of London—and now live there. With candor and humor, this diverse cast—rich and poor, old and young, native and immigrant, men and women (and even a Sarah who used to be a George)—shares indelible tales that capture the city as never before.

Together, these voices paint a vivid, epic, and wholly original portrait of twenty-first-century London in all its breadth, from Notting Hill to Brixton, from Piccadilly Circus to Canary Wharf, from an airliner flying into London Heathrow Airport to Big Ben and Tower Bridge, and down to the deepest tunnels of the London Underground. Londoners is the autobiography of one of the world's greatest cities.

Londoners is not the kind of book you necessarily need to read from cover to cover, in order. Because it consists of short accounts told in the words of people who live or spend time in the city, you can dip in and out of the collection as fits your mood.

Whether you've been to London or not, you'll be entranced by the personal stories. Some of the pieces I particularly liked are these:

• The black ballerina turned plumber who gets a kick out seeing clients' reactions when they open the door to "a black woman with dreadlocks, . . . me in overalls with a headscarf and my locks sticking out."
• The director of markets in the City, who feels quite personally the history of the markets he supervises: the fish market that has been around since Roman times and the meat market that was established early in the Middle Ages.
• The rhyming slang of the market traders.
• The young barristers who discuss the best place to buy a wig and whether one should spring for a traditional wig tin.

I also love the fact that Taylor chose to bookend the interviews with the thoughts of a commercial airline pilot, who describes flying into the city at the beginning of the book and leaving the city at the end.

Londoners is a must for anyone who has visited or lived in the city, who dreams of visiting the city, and who is interested in the opinions of the public. Brew yourself a pot of tea or pour yourself a pint, open Londoners, and be transported to the streets of one the most interesting cities in the world.

BBC news did a short video piece on Londoners and author Craig Taylor, which you can view here. For more news and information, like Taylor's Facebook page.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Londoners at an Indie

Londoners at Powell's

Londoners at Book Depository
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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062005854

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Imprint Friday: Broadway Baby by Alan Shapiro

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Algonquin Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

When I learned that Alan Shapiro, a prize-winning poet, wrote his first novel, I knew I had to take a look. Broadway Baby, the story of a woman who can't quite seem to accept the fact that she's not the next Fanny Brice, was released last week. Here's the publisher's summary:

As a little girl growing up in Boston, Miriam Bluestein fantasized about a life lived on stage, specifically in a musical. Get married, have a family—sure, maybe she’d do those things, too, but first and foremost there was her career. As a woman, she is both tormented and consoled by those dreams in her day-to-day existence with her family, including a short-tempered husband, a cranky mother, and three demanding children, one of whom, Ethan, shows real talent for the stage.

It is through Ethan that Miriam strives to realize her dreams. As she pushes him to make the most of his talent, the rest of her life gradually comes undone, with her husband becoming increasingly frustrated and her other two children—Sam, a mass of quirks and idiosyncrasies, and Julie, hostile and bitter—withdrawing into their own worlds. Still Miriam dreams, praying for that big finale, which, when it comes, is nothing that she ever could have imagined.

All ten-year-olds dream of what they want to be when they grow up. In the 1930s, Miriam Bluestein envisioned herself on the stage, singing and dancing to a rapt audience. The closest she ever got, however, was being a backstage mom to a reluctant acting son.

Poor Miriam, you can't help but sympathize with her one moment and then want to shake some sense into the next. So often she likes the idea of something (being married to a handsome GI, for example) much better than actually doing it. We've all been there, but Miriam takes it to extremes. Her biggest problem, though, is that she has trouble seeing life as anything but a play. Thus, because the appearance of her actions are all important, she never quite gets it right, no matter what her role: wife, mother, or even friend.

One of Shapiro's many talents is his ability to mix humor and sadness almost in the same breath. And really, isn't that the way life is sometimes? Broadway Baby takes readers through the ups and downs of Miriam's attempts to convince her family to play by her script.

Here are a couple of other opinions (click on the links to read the full reviews):

• D. G. Martin, writing for The Pilot: "When great poets like Shapiro write their novels, they bring their powers of wordsmithery to the page. They work with their words so that they do more than simply describe the action, so that the pleasure of reading a good story is enhanced."
• Pam Kelley at The Reading Life: "Sometimes, my favorite parts of a novel are its bits of nonfiction--delicious, crazy facts the author pulls from real life and weaves into the story. This is the case with Alan Shapiro’s 'Broadway Baby,' a novel studded with comic anecdotes so good it would be hard to make them up."

For a sneak peek excerpt and more about Broadway Baby, be sure to visit Algonquin: The Blog. Book clubs will appreciate the discussion questions included at the back of the book, and all readers will be interested in the author note in which Shapiro discusses the intersection of fiction and autobiography.

Algonquin Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Executive Editor Chuck Adams's introductory letter, posted here on January 7, 2011.

Broadway Baby at an Indie

Broadway Baby at Powell's

Broadway Baby at Book Depository
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Published by Workman / Algonquin Books 2012
ISBN-13: 9781565129832

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Imprint Friday: Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

After Jude Keffy-Horn loses his best friend to a drug overdose, he gets clean but ultimately finds a way to use his new lifestyle as an act of rebellion. Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints, out this week in paperback, focuses on Jude's discovery of straight edge and much more.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Adopted by a pair of diehard hippies, restless, marginal Jude Keffy-Horn spends much of his youth getting high with his best friend Teddy in their bucolic and deeply numbing Vermont town. But when Teddy dies of an overdose on the last day of 1987, Jude’s relationship with drugs and with his parents devolves to new extremes. Sent to live with his pot-dealing father in the East Village, Jude stumbles upon straight edge, an underground youth culture powered by the paradoxical aggression of hardcore punk and a righteous intolerance for drugs, meat, and sex. With Teddy’s half-brother Johnny and their new friend Eliza, Jude tries to honor Teddy’s memory through his militantly clean lifestyle. But his addiction to straight edge has its own dangerous consequences. While these teenagers battle to discover themselves, their parents struggle with this new generation’s radical reinterpretation of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll and their grown-up awareness of nature and nurture, brotherhood and loss.

Moving back and forth between Vermont and New York City, Ten Thousand Saints is an emphatically observed story of a frayed tangle of family members, brought painfully together by a death, then carried along in anticipation of new and unexpected life. With empathy and masterful skill, Eleanor Henderson has conjured a rich portrait of the modern age and the struggles that unite and divide generations.

Because I haven't lived in a city in a long time, I was never that familiar with straight edge, which seemed a strange way to rebel and find a place separate from one's parents. Curiosity about that odd combination of teen anger and clean living will bring readers to the door, but it's Henderson's writing and characters that will draw them inside and keep them there until they've learned the whole story.

Henderson's skill at characterizations is evident in this brief reading. In just a couple of minutes, we already have a sense of Jude's mother:

As you can tell from the reading, Ten Thousand Saints is about more than Jude and his friends and straight edge. One of the major themes of the novel is parent-child relationships and way different generations struggle to find their unique place in the world. Henderson also explores grief, young love, fitting in, growing up, and how the decisions we make every day can have far-reaching effects.

Ten Thousand Saints has been showered with praise. Here are just a few examples (click the links for the full reviews):

• Stacey D'Erasmo writing for the New York Times: "Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse and desire and bit of emotional detritus."
• Adam Langer writing for the Washington Post: "Her characterizations demonstrate Henderson’s greatest skill. Even the ones who receive comparatively little stage time are always precisely defined."
• Diane writing at BookChickDi: "Great fiction can open up your mind and heart to characters and new ideas, and Ten Thousand Saints is great fiction."

The hardcover edition of Ten Thousand Saints was an Indie Next pick for July 2011 and made it to many best-of-2011 lists. To learn more about the Eleanor Henderson, visit her website.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Ten Thousand Saints at an Indie

Ten Thousand Saints at Powell's

Ten Thousand Saints at Book Depository
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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062021212

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Imprint Friday: A Good American by Alex George

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

From the very first line ("Always, there was music") to the very last, Alex George's A Good American had my heart in its hands. It still does.

Here's the publisher's summary.

An uplifting novel about the families we create and the places we call home.

It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead ("What's the difference? They're both new"), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.

Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.

A Good American is narrated by Frederick and Jette's grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors' story, comes to realize he doesn't know his own story at all. From bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies, the Kennedy assassination, and beyond, James's family is caught up in the sweep of history. Each new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an American. And, in the process, Frederick and Jette's progeny sometimes discover more about themselves than they had bargained for.

Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, A Good American is a novel about being an outsider-in your country, in your hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. It is a universal story about our search for home.

All Americans (except Native Americans) were once immigrants. For some of us, the path to becoming a good American is still fresh, is still told at family gatherings. We have black-and-white photos of grandparents and great-aunts—hand over heart, posed in front of a flag—taken on the day of their citizenship. Alex George's A Good American is their story . . . and our story.

George has crafted the near-perfect novel. It's an immensely emotional tale in which the characters become a part of your life. You cry over the Meisenheimer family's tragedies, you chuckle at their foibles, and you are shocked at their secrets. You want to eat in the family's restaurant (speakeasy, diner), and you want to listen to their music (jazz, blues, jukebox). In fact, you already know the Meisenheimers because A Good American is the true story of our country in the twentieth century. It's about the journey from Europe to the United States, from being poor to doing okay, from being constrained by old ways to having the freedom to choose.

A Good American is likely the best book I'll read in 2012. Don't just take my word, here are some other opinions (click for the full reviews):

• Publishers Weekly: "[George] evokes small-town life lovingly, sometimes disturbingly, and examines the ties of family, the complications of home, and the moments of love and happiness that arrive no matter what."
• Michael Magras of Many Thrones, One Pretender: "The novel is a showcase not just for George’s obvious passion for music—in a lovely phrase, he refers to the blues as “the cracked holler of remorse”—but for his encyclopedic knowledge of it."
• Alabama Booksmith: "Every staff member at The Alabama Booksmith has read or is reading this amazing book, and Jake has already gone on record as stating that 'This is the best book I’ve read in years.' "

Imprint Extra Alert: Stop back on Monday to read a post from Alex George, written especially for the readers of Beth Fish Reads.

A Good American is an Indie Next Pick for February. To learn more about Alex George, visit his website or Facebook page or follow him on Twitter. Book clubs and other readers will want to see the reading guide, available on the publisher's website.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

A Good American at an Indie

A Good American at Powell's

A Good American at Book Depository
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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, February 7, 2011 (preorder it now!)
ISBN-13: 9780399157592

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Imprint Friday: Caribou Island by David Vann

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Harper Perennial. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

They say that opposites attract, but sometimes a couple brings too many differences to a marriage and too few points of commonality. David Vann explores just such a couple in his Caribou Island, recently out in paperback. Here's the publisher's summary:

On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Gary and Irene’s marriage is unraveling. Following the outline of Gary’s old dream and trying to rebuild their life together, they are finally constructing the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place. But the onset of an early winter and the overwhelming isolation of the prehistoric wilderness threaten their bond to the core.

Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest, Caribou Island is a drama of bitter love and failed dreams—an unforgettable portrait of desolation, violence, and the darkness of the soul.

Although it's certainly not everyone's dream, I've always been attracted to the idea of a cabin in the woods with a fair mix of self-sufficiency. I'm not so sure, however, I'd take it as far as Gary by hauling logs in a canoe to a lonely island in the harsh Alaskan environment. In fact, Alaska acts almost as a third wheel in the couple's relationship, and without it, Gary and Irene might have had a running start. As it is, their own limitations are magnified in the face of the cold and wet, the bears and mosquitoes.

Caribou Island isn't a happy novel; it's a look at stubbornness gone too far, crippling insecurity, mixed up hate and love, and the inability to see reality. It's also about the other Alaska, the one you don't see on postcards.

Irene slumped down inside the cabin, out of the wind for the most part, ducked her head down, her chin inside her jacket, folded her arms, closed her eyes.

A fair representation of her three decades in Alaska, slumping down in rain gear, hiding, making herself as small as possible, fending off mosquitoes that somehow managed to fly despite the wind. Feeling chilled and alone. Not the expansive vision you'd be tempted to have, spreading your arms on some sunny day on an open slope of purple lupine, looking at mountains all around. (p. 204)

Vann takes you into the wilderness and into the heart of a family on the brink of disaster. You'll survive, but will they?

Take a look at some other opinions (click the links to get the full reviews):

• Caitlin Roper, writing for the Los Angeles Times: "Vann clearly has gifts for capturing emotional isolation and suffering. But it's his ability to spin a riveting story from these dark materials that is distinctive."
• Wendy from Caribousmom: "David Vann writes with honesty and sharp-edged realism that is hard to ignore. Not every reader will want to travel through this story with Vann, but for those who do, it will be a ride they will not soon forget."
• Ti from Book Chatter: "You don’t enjoy a story like this, but you experience it and appreciate it on a different level. Vann is a very talented writer and at this point, I’d read anything by him."

I have always had good luck with authors who have written for Outdside magazine, and Vann is no exception. To learn more about David Vann, visit his website.

Harper Perennial is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For information about the imprint, please read Erica Barmash's welcome note posted here on June 18, 2010. I encourage you to add your reviews of Harper Perennial books to the review link-up page; it's a great way to discover Good Books for Cool People. And don't miss the The Olive Reader, the Harper Perennial blog.

Caribou Island at an Indie

Caribou Island at Powell's

Caribou Island at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs.

Published by Harper Perennial, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780061875731

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