Bag of Bones International - Softcover

Stephen King

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671026070 ISBN 13: 9780671026073

Publisher: Pocket Books, 1998

Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestseller from Stephen King--a tale of grief, love's enduring bonds, the haunting secrets of the past, and an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he called "Sara Laughs," Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie and Kyra's struggle--and as he falls in love with both of them--he is also drawn into the mystery of Sarah Laughs...now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here--and just what do they want of Mike Noonan?

About this title

Review

Bag of Bones is partly inspired by Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but there's more than homage in this novel of horror and romance. Like du Maurier's Manderley, King's scary old place (on the shore of Maine's remote Dark Score Lake) is haunted by the late lady of the manor. There are many gory ghosts afoot though: men, women and wailing kids. The hero, a thriller novelist, stirs up hell's angry shades while investigating his wife's death. It turns out she either had a dark secret herself or was onto some dread scandal lurking in Dark Score Lake. As in King's previous book, Wizard and Glass, the fabric of reality is thin and nosy narrators are in peril of plunging right out of this world and into a rather hostile otherworld.

Bag of Bones is a writer-haunted book, too. The spirits of Herman Melville and Ray Bradbury are deeply felt, and so are the tale's two romances (the hero muses on his marriage and falls for a young single mum with a marvellous psychic daughter). There is also good- humoured satire of the real bestseller book world--the hero complains that "the publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi." In its deep concerns with love, sprawling families, the writer's life, endangered children and good old-fashioned storytelling, the book resembles a John Irving novel. It is also absolutely classic Stephen King, packed with nifty turns of phrase, irreverent wit and lurid ghouls who grab you from beneath the bed while you cower under the covers. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Review

What I admire most about "Bag of Bones" is its intelligence of voice, not only the craftsmanship -- the indelible sense of place, the well-fleshed characters, the unstoppable story line -- but the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination. It places both the ghost story and Stephen King in their proper place on the shelf of literary American fiction." -- Amy Tan

""Bag of Bones" is, hands down, King's most narratively subversive fiction. Whenever you're positive -- just positive! -- you know where this ghost story is heading, that's exactly when it gallops off in some jaw-dropping new direction." -- Entertainment Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0671026070
• ISBN 13: 9780671026073
• Binding: Paperback