The Pied Piper's Poison - Softcover

Wallace, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 158567320X ISBN 13: 9781585673209

Publisher: Overlook Pr, 2002

Synopsis

Hard to find

About this title

Review:

‘Quite simply stunning.’
Brian Davis, Time Out

‘Assured, ambitious... The novel’s true achievement lies in its depiction of the chaos, despair, and privations which poisoned both victors and vanquished in the aftermath of the Second World War... a fascinating first novel.’
Michael Arditti, The Times

‘Wallace’s fine debut novel taps straight into the murderous black heart of the age... highly ambitious and stunningly successful.’
Peter Whittaker, Independent

From the Back Cover:

It is winter 1946 and Robert Watt, a young Army doctor, is sent to a camp in southern Poland, charged with discovering why refugees are dying of a hideous and unidentifiable disease. Is the camp being used by Russian doctors as a macabre experiment into the effects of radiation? Or are the symptoms of the disease, as Watt’s misanthropic colleague Arthur Lee believes, proof of poison that lurks within the human psyche?

This account of a young man adrift and seeking solace in medical certainties is deftly interwoven with pages from Arthur’s research paper on that most enduring of folk myths, the Pied Piper of Hamelin...These parallel narratives lead to a climax which is at once genuinely shocking and a hugely satisfying resolution to the mystery. Wallace’s book is a grainy, honest attempt to probe those dark areas we give novelists sanction to investigate. As such, it is both highly ambitious and stunningly successful.”
PETER WHITTAKER ' Independent '

“Kafka’s ' Metamorphosis ', Suskind’s 'Perfume' and David Lynch’s ' Twin Peaks ' all rolled into one – sounds good? If so, then read Wallace’s ambitious first novel, 'The Pied Piper’s Poison'. It is a heady mixture of historical drama, romance and moral allegory. Wallace’s prose style is remarkably fluent and never dull.”
TOM ANGIER 'Literary Review '

“This young Edinburgh – based writer is the first discovery of the New Year. A superbly imagined, expertly executed two-stream historical novel, linking early Cold War Europe with the horrific legacy of the Thirty Years War.”
SCOTSMAN

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 158567320X
• ISBN 13: 9781585673209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96