Indian Gothic: A Story of Adultery and Muder in an American Family - Softcover

Brock, Pope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385530951 ISBN 13: 9780385530958

Publisher: Nan A Talese, 1999

Synopsis

Pope Brock grew up ignorant of the dramatic circumstances surrounding his great-grandfather's death. INDIANA GOTHIC is the extraordinary result of his investigations into his family's hidden history.

The true story of a passionate love-affair which sparked a tragedy, INDIANA GOTHIC encompasses murder, adultery, sibling rivalry and a sensational trial. Set at the turn of the century in a poor, pious mid-western farming community, it is the story of two sisters, one of whom falls in love with the other's husband. Erotic, dramatic, and wonderfully atmospheric, this is 'a gripping true story that reads like fiction' (The Scotsman).

About this title

Review:

If Brock's book has an ancestor, it is surely Truman Capote ... As pure courtroom drama Indiana Gothic is as good as it gets; as historical reconstruction, there has been none better. (Independent)

PRAISE FOR INDIANA GOTHIC

The Indiana landscape, open and lush, and its fitful climate that goes from heat and dust to icy rain in minutes provide the perfect atmosphere for this tale of feverish desire ... A wonderful read. (The Times)

'Indiana Gothic is a brilliant fusion of In Cold Blood and The Bridges of Madison County ... To re-create a period, chart a plot or to attain emotional depth in the way this novel has would all be major achievements taken alone. To have them all is very special.'
Independent on Sunday

Indiana Gothic is a brilliant fusion of In Cold Blood and The Bridges of Madison County ... To re-create a period, chart a plot or to attain emotional depth in the way this novel has would all be major achievements taken alone. To have them all is very special. (Independent on Sunday)

'One of those stories that only the most brilliant and original of novelists could actually have dreamt up ... Brock beautifully weaves in carefully researched details of contemporary life.'
Sunday Times

One of those stories that only the most brilliant and original of novelists could actually have dreamt up ... Brock beautifully weaves in carefully researched details of contemporary life. (Sunday Times)

'Adultery and families are both literary minefields, and Brock manages to tread between the two in a way that is menacingly understated. His voice has all the casual surrealism of a front-porch tale-teller, no longer surprised that folks are much weirder than they are meant to be ... Brock joins the ranks of those writers who remind us that it is narrative that makes sense of empirical reality ... superb.'
Independent

'Pope Brock pilots us with skill and imaginative sympathy back to a late 19th-century Indiana not far removed from pioneering days ... Brock's account of the trial is a tour de force. Characters who have been fleshed out with a novelist's imagination step out of fiction into the real world ... Indiana Gothic is a story that deserved to be told.'
Daily Mail

Brock's account of the trial is a tour de force. Characters who have been fleshed out with a novelist's imagination step out of fiction and into the real world. (Daily Mail)

'It is much more than a kitchen-sink drama, evoking a sense of place and time between the old world and the new, between the horse and the car, so that you are startled when the telephone rings.'
Guardian

'An atmospheric tale of ambition and insanity.'
Mail on Sunday

'A gripping account of a family tragedy that reads like the best fiction ... A great American writer has arrived.'
Mirror

'Will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ... [Brock] weaves a thoroughly engrossing story that throws into stark relief the paper morality of turn-of-the-century rural America.'
Heat

'A gripping true story that reads like fiction ... has all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie.'
Scotsman

'Brock knows how to tell a good story ... His unveiling of the inevitable affair and the just-as-inevitable murder is as elegantly wrought as the finest of fiction. He has reimagined and rendered whole and human the way his family members thought, felt and acted more than ninety years ago ... Well worth reading.'
New York Times

'A dramatic, fast-paced story drawing its power from passion, hatred and murder ... [Brock] reaches deep into the true darkness of human nature.'
Doris Betts, author of The Sharp Teeth of Love

'Indiana Gothic has unforgettable characters, great atmosphere, and it goes like a freight train.'
Nicholas Paleggi, author and screenplay writer (Wiseguy, Goodfellas and Casino)

Book Description:

'A brilliant fusion of IN COLD BLOOD and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY'
Independent on Sunday

About this edition

• Publisher: Nan A Talese
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385530951
• ISBN 13: 9780385530958
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384