Nightwoods
Charles Frazier
Nightwoods
In the lonesome beauty of the forest, across the far shore of the mountain lake from town, Luce acts as caretaker to an empty, decaying Lodge, a relic of holidaymakers a century before. Her days are long and peaceful, her nights filled with Nashville radio and yellow lights shimmering on the black water. A solitary life, and the perfect escape. Until the stranger children come. Bringing fire. And murder. And love.
3.7 out of 5 based on 9 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
272 |
| RRP |
£17.99 |
| Date of Publication |
September 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1444731248 |
| Publisher |
Sceptre |
| |
In the lonesome beauty of the forest, across the far shore of the mountain lake from town, Luce acts as caretaker to an empty, decaying Lodge, a relic of holidaymakers a century before. Her days are long and peaceful, her nights filled with Nashville radio and yellow lights shimmering on the black water. A solitary life, and the perfect escape. Until the stranger children come. Bringing fire. And murder. And love.
Read an extract from the book on The New York Times website
Reviews
The Guardian
John Burnside
“Frazier is very good at the slow and nuanced process by which such emotionally thwarted, and justifiably suspicious, characters come together, but that meeting always happens against a backdrop of violence and social upheaval. The morally ambiguous postwar world Nightwoods inhabits is vividly drawn. ”
14/10/2011
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The Independent
Leyla Sanai
“Charles Frazier's third novel is as accomplished as his first two ... In anyone else's hands, this might turn out to be a gripping but ultimately forgettable thriller. Frazier, however, is a writer whose spare prose paradoxically oozes atmosphere – you can almost smell the verdant pine trees and hear the crack of twigs underfoot. ”
16/09/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Lucy Beresford
“There’s an almost rarefied atmosphere to this novel. Partly this is due to the double-helix hunt at the heart of the tale, cranking up the tension. And partly it is the delicate portrayal of the children’s tentative steps towards healing. The first word they utter is perfect without being sentimental. But mostly the breathless delight comes from Frazier’s poetic sensibility towards the brutality and beauty of nature.”
06/10/2011
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The Sunday Times
Stephen Amidon
“In his first two novels, Charles Frazier’s undeniable gifts were marred by a tendency to overwrite … In Nightwoods, his third novel, the author holds his formidable style in check, and the result is his best book to date.”
25/09/2011
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The Washington Post
Ron Charles
“A fantastic book: an Appalachian Gothic with a low-level fever that runs alternately warm and chilling. Frazier has left the 19th century and the picaresque form to produce a cleverly knitted thriller …”
28/09/2011
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The Times
Kate Saunders
“Wonderfully atmospheric, as twisty as a country road.”
08/10/2011
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The Daily Mail
Carla McKay
“Frazier’s taut prose, superb sense of place and timing and suspense-inducing skills save this from being just another thriller but, in any case, it’s feels as if it’s just a vehicle for the inevitable film.”
30/09/2011
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The New York Times
Michiko Kakutami
“Over-the-top passages are not only ridiculously melodramatic, but they also rip a hole in the textured emotional fabric of this novel, which Mr. Frazier has so painstakingly woven through his depiction of Luce, Stubblefield and the two children, and the Appalachian landscape they inhabit.”
21/09/2011
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The Financial Times
George Pendle
“When, after slowly cranking the tension for two-thirds of the book, the physical chase does finally begin it is a peculiar one. Frazier seems more concerned with describing the symmetry of a sprig of balsam or the tread of a foot in fresh snow than with the life-and-death struggle of his protagonists, who seem to dissolve and dissipate into the woodscape. ”
30/09/2011
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