The River King - Hardcover

Hoffman, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399145990 ISBN 13: 9780399145995

Publisher: Putnam Pub Group, 2000

Synopsis

A town divided by class lines is thrown into turmoil by a mysterious death, which begins to unravel the lives of a fifteen-year-old girl, a young boy, and a women running from her own destiny. By the author of Local Girls. 90,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Alice Hoffman beautifully choreographs the battle between nature and civilisation to mirror the action in her mesmerising 13th novel The River King. Although set in the contemporary, three block-long village of Haddan, Massachusetts, its enchanting gothic flavour makes it feel like a much earlier era. Haddan School, built perilously close to the river in 1858, "had been fashioned out of river rock, grey slabs flecked with mica", and the cupboards have a "distinctly weedy odour". The school's folklore matches its mid-19th century beginnings with tales of blood-seeped roses, a hanging from the rafters and people lead astray by the "pale green light rising from the river each evening" into "fields rife with late-blooming asters and milkweed".

The four outsiders at the novel's heart are brought together by the dramatic forces of love and death: two new students, Gus, a rebellious, hapless loner; Carlin, a beautiful swimmer from Florida; Betsy, the unconventional photography teacher trapped in a conventional engagement, and Abel, the local cop who comes to the school to investigate a drowning. After a tragic flood, the novel picks up pace and switches from gothic horror to detective story with hints of The X Files. A ghost appears in Betsy's photos and leaves mementoes from the river all around the school. When the drowned corpse is found to have faecal matter in its lungs in a cleaned-up river, the plot takes on echoes of Chinatown and is no less riveting for that.

Although Hoffman misses some of the menace and narrative drive of a true thriller, her portrait of a secluded world, which has developed its own secrets, rules and inability to confront evil, weaves a murky and disturbing spell. --Cherry Smyth

Review:

"Graceful, beguiling, and quirky."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Rewarding...a novel not to be missed."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Set in and around an exclusive private school in fictional Haddan, Mass., bestselling author Hoffman's latest novel flows as swiftly and limpidly as the Haddan River, the town's mystical waterway...As ever, Hoffman mixes myth, magic and reality, addressing issues of town and gown, enchanting her readers with a many-layered morality tale and proving herself once again an inventive author with a distinctive touch."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Suspenseful and engrossing."--Denver Rocky Mountain News

"It can be hard to find an example of good old-fashioned storytelling these days, but storytelling, refreshingly, is Alice Hoffman's strength...The River King is full of wonderfully and satisfyingly odd twists and turns."--The New York Times Book Review

"Reading her book is like having a dream that haunts even after we awaken."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Graceful, beguiling, and quirky. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Rewarding a novel not to be missed. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Set in and around an exclusive private school in fictional Haddan, Mass., bestselling author Hoffman s latest novel flows as swiftly and limpidly as the Haddan River, the town s mystical waterway As ever, Hoffman mixes myth, magic and reality, addressing issues of town and gown, enchanting her readers with a many-layered morality tale and proving herself once again an inventive author with a distinctive touch. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Suspenseful and engrossing. Denver Rocky Mountain News

It can be hard to find an example of good old-fashioned storytelling these days, but storytelling, refreshingly, is Alice Hoffman s strength The River King is full of wonderfully and satisfyingly odd twists and turns. The New York Times Book Review

Reading her book is like having a dream that haunts even after we awaken. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "

Graceful, beguiling, and quirky. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Rewarding a novel not to be missed. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Set in and around an exclusive private school in fictional Haddan, Mass., bestselling author Hoffman s latest novel flows as swiftly and limpidly as the Haddan River, the town s mystical waterway As ever, Hoffman mixes myth, magic and reality, addressing issues of town and gown, enchanting her readers with a many-layered morality tale and proving herself once again an inventive author with a distinctive touch. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Suspenseful and engrossing. Denver Rocky Mountain News

It can be hard to find an example of good old-fashioned storytelling these days, but storytelling, refreshingly, is Alice Hoffman s strength The River King is full of wonderfully and satisfyingly odd twists and turns. The New York Times Book Review

Reading her book is like having a dream that haunts even after we awaken. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"

"Graceful, beguiling, and quirky."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Rewarding...a novel not to be missed."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Set in and around an exclusive private school in fictional Haddan, Mass., bestselling author Hoffman's latest novel flows as swiftly and limpidly as the Haddan River, the town's mystical waterway...As ever, Hoffman mixes myth, magic and reality, addressing issues of town and gown, enchanting her readers with a many-layered morality tale and proving herself once again an inventive author with a distinctive touch."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Suspenseful and engrossing."--Denver Rocky Mountain News

"It can be hard to find an example of good old-fashioned storytelling these days, but storytelling, refreshingly, is Alice Hoffman's strength...The River King is full of wonderfully and satisfyingly odd twists and turns."--The New York Times Book Review

"Reading her book is like having a dream that haunts even after we awaken."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

-Graceful, beguiling, and quirky.---The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

-Rewarding...a novel not to be missed.---St. Louis Post-Dispatch

-Set in and around an exclusive private school in fictional Haddan, Mass., bestselling author Hoffman's latest novel flows as swiftly and limpidly as the Haddan River, the town's mystical waterway...As ever, Hoffman mixes myth, magic and reality, addressing issues of town and gown, enchanting her readers with a many-layered morality tale and proving herself once again an inventive author with a distinctive touch.---Publishers Weekly (starred review)

-Suspenseful and engrossing.---Denver Rocky Mountain News

-It can be hard to find an example of good old-fashioned storytelling these days, but storytelling, refreshingly, is Alice Hoffman's strength...The River King is full of wonderfully and satisfyingly odd twists and turns.---The New York Times Book Review

-Reading her book is like having a dream that haunts even after we awaken.---The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Pub Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0399145990
• ISBN 13: 9780399145995
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324