In rural Illinois two tenant farmers share much, finally too much, until jealously leads to murder and suicide. A tenuous friendship between lonely teenagers - the narrator, whose mother has died young, and Cletus Smith, the troubled witness to his parent's misery - is shattered. After the murder and upheavals that follow, the boys never speak again. Fifty years on, the narrator attempts a reconstruction of those devastating events and the atonement of a lifetime's regret.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"One of the great books of our age. It is the subtlest of miniatures that contains our deepest sorrows and truths and love - all caught in a clear, simple style in perfect brushstrokes" (Michael Ondjaate)
"A truly extraordinary novel... Maxwell has tapped a vein of strange, pure emotion" (Philip Hensher Mail on Sunday)
"So magically deft at being profound...possesses that daunting quality impossible to emulate: it makes greatness seem simple" (Richard Ford)
"Maxwell does something all great novelists do: he conjures depths of pain and regret in words of radiant simplicity" (Anthony Quinn Observer)
"This calm, reflective and extraordinarily beautiful novel offers American fiction at its finest" (Irish Times)
Book Description:
An extraordinary and beautiful novel from one of American's greatest novelists
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDavid R Godine Pub
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0879237546
- ISBN 13 9780879237547
- BindingPaperback
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Rating