In a Dark Wood - Hardcover

Craig, Amanda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857026829 ISBN 13: 9781857026825

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2000

Synopsis

A major new work by the bestselling author of ‘A Vicious Circle’, on a larger scale and more serious than her previous fiction, but with her characteristic satirical edge and page-turningly suspenseful plotting.

Benedick Hunter is a man who has lost everything. A failed actor and divorced father on the verge of a nervous breakdown, his life takes on a new direction when he finds a book of his mother’s in which real people and their stories are strangely intertwined with traditional fairytales. In 1965, Laura, an American illustrator of children’s books, committed suicide in Primrose Hill after Benedick’s father left her for another woman. Her son can remember nothing about her, but the fairytales and their tantalising illustrations convince him that his own life is in some way echoing and repeating hers.

Hunter embarks on a bizarre and darkly comic quest to discover who his mother really was and why she died. Haunted by guilt, by the consequences of his own erratic behaviour, and by his impossible children, Hunter struggles with the terrible and the absurd. Hunter’s obsession takes him back into the London of the early 1960s, and across the Atlantic to New York and the magical yet sinister landscape of North Carolina. What was the connection between Laura’s creativity and her death? Why do some people portray her as evil and others as good? Hunter’s journey takes him to the heart of his own nature, of modern fatherhood, of manic depression and of the elusive nature of fairytales.

About this title

Review:

Fairy tales are stuffed to the brim with dark woods--dark woods in which dwarves and hermits lurk, trees bleed when struck with an axe and princes and princesses are tested to within a hair's breadth of their lives. When Benedick Hunter finds a book of fairy tales written by his mother he knows there are dark woods within but is unaware of just how dangerous fairy tales can be. In A Dark Wood is his journey to discover his mother's secrets, the truths behind her stories and why she committed suicide when he was still a child. This is also a journey to find out more about himself, his "amorphous moods" and the "stink of failure" that plagues him following a divorce and a long spell of unemployment.

In A Dark Wood unravels through a matrix of fairy tales and half-forgotten memories leading from London in the 1960s to present-day New York and the white verandaed houses of North Carolina (hemmed in, of course, by dark woods). It's Amanda Craig's fourth novel, following the acclaimed A Vicious Circle, which is currently being developed for BBC television. Craig confirms with this novel that she is a voice to listen to, a bold writer who is not frightened to deliver a harrowing read. That said, In A Dark Wood has a lighter side and is shot through with a magical feel--as all good fairy tales should be.--Jane Honey

Review:

‘An intelligent and gripping novel. Wonderful, page-turning storytelling.’ The Times

‘Exhibits the same incisiveness and intelligence as her acclaimed “A Vicious Circle”. Witty and disturbing, it is a novel of both accomplishment and charm.’ Daily Mail

‘A book within a book, a rich plot with plenty of on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense, an abundance of quirky but believable character...“In A Dark Wood” is an elegant anti-fairy tale for adults that keeps you guessing until the last few pages.’ Daily Express

‘An eerie novel full of fairytale menace...beguilingly told and hypnotic.’ Independent on Sunday

'A tour de force.' Spectator

'Vivid and enchanting, ‘In A Dark Wood’ is an affirmation of storytelling.' New Statesman

‘Terrifyingly intense...Craig’s triumph is to underscore the way in which society treats emotions as a disability.’ Financial Times

‘Predominantly comic and reassuring ... a triumph for sanity.’ Time Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1857026829
• ISBN 13: 9781857026825
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288