A tale of mystery and healing from the Canadian forests, where Nature can be nasty and men can easily go mad.
The force of William Faulkner combines with Michael Ondaatje’s giddying lyricism in this devastating novel from Canada.
We’re in the Canadian uplands, a landscape of lakes and forests, cabins and canoes, hunters and hunted. The Healer is a young teenage girl with a gift she finds hard to bear: she seems able to heal the sick, to drive out foul spirits.
Her father is a brutal man: strong, tempestuous and violent, he finds it hard to accommodate his daughter’s abilities in the way she would wish. A journalist, our principal narrator, comes between them, sent by his magazine to secure a story.
Entranced by the girl and the emptiness of the land, he buys from a persuasive realtor a derelict fisherman’s lakeside cabin, which is utterly inaccessible in the midst of a vast forest, in which he – and others – lose their tracks. The cabin becomes the centre of the action, and all three main characters swirl into a vortex of vengeance and violence – violence reflected in a landscape of storms and floods of terrifying power. Hollingshead proves himself a writer who knows the lethal force latent in the natural world. And that man is an animal too.
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Praise for Greg Hollingshead:
‘Hollingshead’s prose is outlandishly original, blunt, awful and funny. Here are tiny, fiery worlds that make you roar with laughter in the first paragraph, cry in the last. A magical, unmissable, crazily perfect book.’
Julie Myerson, Mail on Sunday
‘He has a way of making the ordinary buckle and twist into something quite bizarre’
Observer
‘Brilliant and funny. Every line sparkles with originality and intelligence’
Barbara Gowdy
‘Hollingshead does not burden The Healer with solutions but allows the unfathomable impulses of love and hurt to enmesh these fractured and dislocated lives. He writes with a governing absence of philosophy that vividly recalls the nihilisms of Cormac McCarthy. There are resonances of E.Annie Proulx, too, in his poetically compressed prose that imagines stark landscapes as richly unyielding as their beleaguered inhabitants. This is a substantial book and a swift read despite the gravity of its tale. Hollingshead’s unhysterical comprehension of the human capacity for harm is convincing and unsettling; such raw exposure of emotion lends an edge of agoraphobia to his isolated, northern community.’ James Urquhart, Guardian
‘From the first decapitated chipmunk [Hollingshead] reveals himself as a David Lynch of prose. Once the characters are pursuing one another through a vast expanse of Canadian woodland, Hollingshead piles on the menace... Excellent fodder for that remote camping holiday.’ Patrick Gale, Daily Telegraph
‘There are some wonderfully poetic and resonant images in this novel; the descriptions of the Canadian landscape are incandescent and some of the set-pieces both hilarious and disturbing.’ Francis Gilbert, The Times
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. We're happy to combine shipping to save you some money. We're also always buying collectible book collections. Contact us for details. We're happy to provide pictures of any and all books for you, please just ask! Canadian first edition, first printing. . Published by Phyllis Bruce Books/Harper Flamingo. In 1998. Contains numberline 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Virtually no wear to jacket. Jacket is NOT price clipped. Covers are clean and bright. Edges are sharp. No tears or creases. The book itself is in Fine condition with no bumps or marks. The binding is straight and tight. NO remainder mark. Oversize and heavy items may require additional postage. Seller Inventory # sku520003121
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition; First Printing. Flat signed by author on title page. Novel by the author of "The Roaring Girl". Spot of soiling on outside edge of text block. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY - customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery. ; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 1971
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. First edition hardcover in dust jacket. Mr. Hollingshead won the Governor General's award for The Roaring Girl. Fine/Fine. Seller Inventory # 264137
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st. (CAD) First Printing INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR to the title pages, no other markings, Fine as New in unclipped Fine dust jacket. 309pp. "A remarkable novel of betrayal and redemption", a s journalist goes into the wilderness in search of a story about a healer. (2.0 JM HOJ 300/b2 Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾". Inscribed By Author. Seller Inventory # 55677
Book Description Hard Cover in Dust Jacket. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition, First Printing. Canadian author's fifth book, a novel; short-listed for the Giller Prize. 309 pages. Seller Inventory # 9479
Book Description Hard Cover in Dust Jacket. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition, First Printing. Canadian author's fifth book, a novel; short-listed for the Giller Prize. 309 pages. Seller Inventory # 20495
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition 1998. First printing. Signed and Inscribed. Wrapped in mylar. Seller Inventory # 978000225516C
Book Description Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 8vo pp. 309, Signed and dedicated by the author on the title page. Signed by Author. book. Seller Inventory # A01552