Shadow Country - Hardcover

Matthiessen, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085705015X ISBN 13: 9780857050151

Publisher: MacLehose Press, 2010

Synopsis

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself to his own violent end at the hands of his neighbours. Following the story of his son Lucius as he tries to learn the truth about his father, the story tells of devastating events and traverses wild landscapes inhabited by Americans of every provenance and colour. In this new rendering of the Watson trilogy, Matthiessen has consolidated his fictional masterwork into a poetic, compelling novel of a vast scope and ambition, with breathtaking accomplishment.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Matthiessen - novelist, naturalist and explorer - is the only writer to have won National Book Awards in fiction and non-fiction. As well as the Watson Trilogy, his fiction includes At Play in the Fields of the Lord and Far Tortuga. His non-fiction includes The Snow Leopard (National Book Award winner) and In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. He was one of the founders of the Paris Review and his pieces appear regularly in the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.

From the Inside Flap

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the dawn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly towards his own violent end at the hands of neighbours. His son Lucius investigates the killing which has come to obsess him.
Shadow Country traverses strange landscapes and frontier hinterlands inhabited by Americans of every provenance and colour, including the black and Indian inheritors of the archaic racism that, as Watson's wife observed, 'still cast its shadow over the nation'.
Peter Matthiessen's great American epic - Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River, and Bone By Bone - was conceived as a single vast, mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has deepened the insights and motivations of his characters, distilling a monumental work and realizing his original vision.

Edition details

• Publisher: MacLehose Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 085705015X
• ISBN 13: 9780857050151
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 912