I loved the slow, almost glacial pace of this hostage thriller set in an isolated farmhouse in rural France. Over the course of the single day of a surprise birthday party, it gradually generates an almost unbearable, edge-of-your-seat intensity as it builds towards a final, nightmarish climax.
I really enjoyed the literary narrative style, which cleverly guides the reader through the inner thoughts of each protagonist, seamlessly shifting points of view within single paragraphs without us even noticing. We are never too sure why the events in the book are taking place (who are these intruders, why have they singled out this small family?) until the eventual revelations of past lives and secrets bring everything into focus.
A big shout-out to the translator of this book–a masterful job!
Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbour, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife's fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet's quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashing a nightmarish chain of events.
Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the…
I found this book to be a very disturbing, but nonetheless absorbing, read. Set during an unspecified political upheaval that leads to civil war in Ireland, it details the gradual collapse of society, almost unnoticed by the characters at first as things seemingly carry on close to normal, but eventually gather pace until people are subsumed (and consumed) in a totalitarian police state.
The story is frighteningly believable, particularly in the current global political climate, and all the more so since it tells the tale of an ordinary family discovering how their lives can disintegrate so easily in the face of relentless political oppression—a harrowing, shocking and cautionary book for our times.
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 • NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"A prophetic masterpiece." — Ron Charles, Washington Post
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she…
One of my favorite writers revisits a common trope from his own books—a mysterious portal conveying our hero to another land/time/dimension. King has used this before in books such as From a Buick 8, 11/22/63, and, indeed, his magnum opus, The Dark Tower, but here he sets the story in a fantasy, fairy-tale world.
I enjoyed his use of common fairy tale themes—the pot of gold, the evil dungeon, talking horses, the old crone—though these are woven into the storyline with his usual deftness in such a way that they don’t seem clunky or contrived.
Of course, one of my very favorite things about King’s writing is his detailed characterization, and in 17-year-old Charlie, old Mr. Bowditch, and, indeed, Radar, the dog, he delivers another set of memorable, believable characters.
A #1 New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice!
Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad…
A disparate group of inept low-level Glasgow gangsters attempts to pull off a heist to steal the world’s most famous gemstone—the rare purple diamond, the Dark Side of the Moon—when it is exhibited, along with great publicity and accompanying high levels of security, in a luxury department store in the city.
Things begin to fall apart quickly when they realize they have no clue about what they are doing, leading to infighting, betrayals, mayhem, and disaster.
