Fault Lines - Hardcover

Huston, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1552786641 ISBN 13: 9781552786642

Publisher: McArthur & Company, 2007

Synopsis

Narrated by four children from different generations of the same family, Fault Lines is a tale of a present haunted by the past. Moving from California to New York, from Haifa to Toronto and Munich, its stories unwind back through the years until, reaching the Second World War, the devastating secret at the heart of the family's history is finally revealed.

Domestic in focus and epic in scope, Fault Lines is a poignant and captivating piece of storytelling, revealing what can happen when past and present collide...

About this title

Review

"An immaculate novel." (The Guardian)

"Huston's powerful novel combines the pacing of a thriller with the emotional intricacies that are the hallmark of the best family stories." (Booklist)

"Explosive in its control and its ambition." (Le Figaro)

"Nancy Huston is a brilliant, lyrical, unforgettable writer." (Janette Turner Hospital)

"Fault Lines is haunted by the upheavals of the twentieth century. Reading this brilliant novel, you are deeply moved." (Le Monde)

"Huston's brilliance is in how she gradually lets the reader in on the secret and draws out the revelation so carefully that by the time the reader arrives at the heart of the matter in Munich 1944, the discovery hits with blunt force. Huston masterfully links the 20th century's misery to 21st-century discomfort in razor-sharp portraits of children as they lose their innocence." (Publishers Weekly)

"Narrated by four children from different generations of the same family, this tale of a present haunted by the past won the "Prix Femina" 2006. Reminiscent of Nicole Krauss's "The History Of Love", it will also appeal to fans of Lionel Shriver, Helen Dunmore and Linda Grant. It was also longlisted for the Orange Prize." (The Guardian)

"Gifted narrator Edwina Wren deftly juggles a handful of challenging accents and a clever plot in this story of four generations of brilliant and troubled characters. Novelist Nancy Huston’s twelfth novel is told through the eyes of four children and proceeds backward from 2004 to 1944. Wren portrays each character with sensitivity and allows a tone of wonder and innocence to color her voice as she moves through the four sections of the story. The unusual structure of the book and the slow-building tension make the final revelation both startling and shocking as each of the children experiences a loss of innocence. FAULT LINES gives listeners a glimpse of the many absurdities and wonders of life." (AudioFile Magazine)

"This novel, the winner of the 2006 Prix Femina (a French literary prize), is structured as a reverse recitation (starting in 2004 and going back to WWII) of four generations of hidden family secrets as relayed in slice-of-life sections by youngsters. Wren’s voice fluidly morphs from male to female, and through time shifts and varied accents, she relays feelings of innocence edged with the unflinching honesty of youth, expertly matching the saga’s deep emotional pull. Wren channels the creepy malevolence of young Sol, a coddled Californian, whose online obsession with sex and violence is disturbingly at odds with his childhood fears concerning a botched surgery and the repressed unease of a family reunion. Sol’s father, Randall, recounts his New York and Israeli boyhood in the 1980s, and Wren’s voice is colored with tones of deep familial affection and humor, tinged with the tremulous hesitation of unfulfilled affection. Wren’s voicing of grandmother Sadie’s Canadian youth in 1962 reveals the raw pain of abandonment as much by careful silence and audible breaths as by suppressed tones of anger and heartrending emotion. Wren masterfully communicates the brutality, terror, and resolute survival of great-grandmother Erra’s childhood in Germany during WWII, events that hold the key to the familial fault lines, which expose the horror of the Holocaust. Each voice rings absolutely true, whether luminous with the description of Erra’s musical talent or dark with revulsion and betrayal. An extraordinarily moving listening experience." (Booklist)

Review

It poses provocative and challenging questions and demands a response from the reader. -- Times Literary Supplement

The novel's form both creates and deconstructs its own ambiguities leading to a fascinating read. Domestic in focus and epic in scope, Fault Lines is a captivating piece of storytelling.
-- Clare Drewett, South Wales Argus

Edition details

• Publisher: McArthur & Company
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1552786641
• ISBN 13: 9781552786642
• Binding: Hardcover