The Devil's Footprints: A Novel - Hardcover

Burnside, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385522096 ISBN 13: 9780385522090

Publisher: Nan a Talese, 2008

Synopsis

Michael Gardiner has lived in Coldhaven all his life yet still feels like an outsider. Married but rather distant from his wife, he reads in the local paper that a school friend, Moira Birnie, has killed herself and her two sons by setting their car on fire; but she has spared her 14-year-old daughter Hazel. Michael uneasily recalls his past connections to Moira. As teenagers, Michael and Moira had a brief romance, yet more troubling to Michael is the fact that he was responsible for the death of Moira’s brother, the town bully. In the wake of the tragedy, Michael becomes obsessed with Hazel, who is just old enough to be his daughter. Aware of his obsession, Hazel convinces Michael to take her away from the village and her father, an abusive and violent man.

Setting his story against the untamed Scottish landscape, John Burnside has written a chilling novel that explores the elemental forces of everyday life: love, fear, grief, and the hope of redemption. In its ability to evoke and exploit our most primal fears, The Devil’s Footprints prompts comparisons to the best of Stephen King. In both language and imagery, it is a novel of mysterious beauty, written with the clarity and power of a folktale.

About this title

Review

'a classic tale with an old-fashioned, gripping plot'
-- Anne Enright, Guardian

"Burnside's dark lyricism gives the ordinary surfaces of life a sinister geometry and his startling images cling to the imagination" -- Sunday Times, April 15, 2007

'Both this novel and Gift Songs are superb achievements' -- The Financial Times

'Burnside whose output is nothing less than phenomenal.'
-- The Herald

'Spare, bewitching, beautifully written book' -- The Times

'The Devil's Footsteps is convincing, occasionally disturbing and
ultimately comforting'
-- The Herald

'Thrilling, haunting and provocative' -- Scotland on Sunday

'Undeniably entertaining throughout' -- The Sunday Telegraph

`No novel since this author's last one has made you this chill in
the bone...snowlit and morally courageous book' -- Scottish Review of Books - Rev'd Candia McWillian

`this engaging and well-written novel, which reads almost as a
piece of folklore' -- Big Issue Big Issue

From the Publisher

A breathtaking novel by the author of A Lie About My Father.

Edition details

• Publisher: Nan a Talese
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0385522096
• ISBN 13: 9780385522090
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224