Red Stag: A Novel - Softcover

Valdene, Guy De La

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592286275 ISBN 13: 9781592286270

Publisher: The Lyons Press, 2012

Synopsis

A stunning debut novel by Count Guy de la Valdene. A novel of desire, murder and chilling revenge.

About this title

Review:

"[This is] a debut with the feel of a nineteenth century novel. De la Valdène's description of the Norman forests and wildlife are rich and graceful, and he expertly captures the shades of difference between the privileged life of the aristocracy, town life and Vincent's sheltered existence."--Publishers Weekly"Guy de la Valdène's Red Stag is beautifully written; it is both a fine sporting novel and literature."--Jim Harrison"Red Stag is a gripping, deeply felt story embedded in a cherished and closely observed world still ruled by the laws of nature."--Tom McGuane"A highly appealing first novel. The novel's pleasures derive largely from de la Valdène's ability to bring an idyllic rural community convincingly to life. De la Valdène has also peopled the novel with a variety of vividly drawn characters. Part love story, part coming-of-age adventure, and part pastoral, this offers many old-fashioned pleasures--including a certain rustic, romantic charm. Highly recommended."--Library Journal "This is an absolutely beautiful book, whose intelligence and wit are testaments to the grandest storytelling. Reading Red Stag is like walking outside on the most glorious October afternoon of your life--you are moved by grandeur. The writing in this book lights up like a cathedral in your head. Guy de la Valdène is a masterful writer."--Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way "Red Stag is one of the best novels I have read in years: a story set in the beautifully evoked deep countryside of Normandy, a landscape that surrounds the characters the way a river does a trout."--Field & Stream "Red Stag is a lovely novel that offers an intimate glimpse into a rarified, forgotten world. A story of friendship and family, loyalty and betrayal, revenge and forbidden love, it is beautifully written, full of heartbreak and longing, and the final brutal solace of the natural world." --Jim Fergus, author of One Thousand White Women

From the Back Cover:

Red Stag is a tantalizing love story and a coming of age novel set against the backdrop of a lush estate in Normandy, France, in the 1960s. It is a novel of desire, of murder, and of chilling revenge.
Vincent, a boy who has grown up in the shadow of a Counts estate, has just turned nineteen. As the son of the Countesss maid, his childhood was one of ambiguous privilege. But his fathers identity remains a mystery, and the villagers shun and fear him for his questionable heritage. As the novel opens, Vincent has just returned from his last year of boarding school for the summer, when his uncle, the estates gamekeeper, is brutally murdered. Vincent vows revenge, and along with his best friend sets out to find the murderers. Meanwhile, the village is in a state of agitation, anticipating the opening day of the ritualized stag hunt, with hounds and horses, for the royal red stag. In the midst of it all, Nicole, the counts daughter, returns to the estate from America.
As the search for the murderers identity intensifies and the stag hunt approaches, Nicole and Vincent find themselves inexorably drawn together. The secrets revealed leave no one innocent, exposing the potential of extremes from devout loyalty to bitter cruelty within the human heart.
Atmospheric and exotic, Red Stag is textured by the wildlife and the rivers and woods of Normandy. It is beautifully written, near-cinematic in its clarity, suspenseful, and utterly unforgettable.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Lyons Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1592286275
• ISBN 13: 9781592286270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392