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 Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR008997214
Book Description Hardback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR009053161
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780002257978
Book Description Softcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Later Edition. Size: Octavo (standard book size). 272 pages. Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Edges foxed and browned. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Crime Fiction; ISBN: 0002257971. ISBN/EAN: 9780002257978. All our pictures shown here are of the actual item, not stock photos. Inventory No: RB15789. For further info on this title, click on the "Contact Seller" button within this listing. We will try to reply within 24 hours. Otherwise you can order right now (inclusive of shipping options) from the "Add to Basket" button to the right. Seller Inventory # RB15789