Caribou Island

Author:   David Vann
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN:  

9780670918447


Pages:   304
Publication Date:   27 January 2011
Recommended Age:   From 0 years
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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Caribou Island


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Overview

A great American novel from the new Cormac McCarthy On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, a marriage is unravelling. Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, and Irene, haunted by a tragedy in her past, are trying to rebuild their life together. Following the outline of Gary's old dream, they're hauling logs out to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to patch together the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place. Across the water on the mainland, Irene and Gary's grown daughter, Rhoda is starting her own life. She fantasizes about the perfect wedding day, whilst her betrothed, Jim the dentist, wonders about the possibility of an altogether different future. From the author of the massively-acclaimed Legend of a Suicide, comes a devastating novel about a marriage, a couple blighted by past shadows and the weight of expectation, of themselves and of each other. Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest in its depiction of love and disappointment, David Vann's first novel confirms him as one of America's most dazzling writers of fiction.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Vann
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:   Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 12.90cm , Height: 3.50cm , Length: 19.80cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9780670918447


ISBN 10:   067091844
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   27 January 2011
Recommended Age:   From 0 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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Reviews

Gets to places other novels can't touch New York Times An extravagantly gifted and moving writer Sunday Times Wields an unforgiving, elemental power that is breathtaking to read Independent on Sunday Beautiful, richly atmospheric ... deserves to consolidate Vann's position among America's literary high flyers Evening Standard The prose here frequently achieves a quite astonishing beauty Daily Telegraph A novel of fine artistry and stark emotional truth o full of our darkest currents and faintest sounds The Times A writer to read and reread Economist Beautifully written and bitterly funny Financial Times Caribou Island is a scant 300 pages, and written in prose as pellucid as the rivers he used to fish as a boy. But it says so much: about men and women, about marriage, about the desperate gap between who we want to be and who we are Observer


Gets to places other novels can't touch New York Times An extravagantly gifted and moving writer Sunday Times Wields an unforgiving, elemental power that is breathtaking to read Independent on Sunday Beautiful, richly atmospheric ... deserves to consolidate Vann's position among America's literary high flyers Evening Standard The prose here frequently achieves a quite astonishing beauty Daily Telegraph A novel of fine artistry and stark emotional truth - full of our darkest currents and faintest sounds The Times A writer to read and reread Economist Beautifully written and bitterly funny Financial Times Caribou Island is a scant 300 pages, and written in prose as pellucid as the rivers he used to fish as a boy. But it says so much: about men and women, about marriage, about the desperate gap between who we want to be and who we are Observer


Caribou Island is a scant 300 pages, and written in prose as pellucid as the rivers he used to fish as a boy. But it says so much: about men and women, about marriage, about the desperate gap between who we want to be and who we are * Observer * Beautifully written and bitterly funny * Financial Times * A writer to read and reread * Economist * A novel of fine artistry and stark emotional truth - full of our darkest currents and faintest sounds * The Times * The prose here frequently achieves a quite astonishing beauty * Daily Telegraph * Beautiful, richly atmospheric . . . deserves to consolidate Vann's position among America's literary high flyers * Evening Standard * Wields an unforgiving, elemental power that is breathtaking to read * Independent on Sunday * An extravagantly gifted and moving writer * Sunday Times * Gets to places other novels can't touch * New York Times *


Gets to places other novels can't touch New York Times An extravagantly gifted and moving writer Sunday Times Wields an unforgiving, elemental power that is breathtaking to read Independent on Sunday Beautiful, richly atmospheric ... deserves to consolidate Vann's position among America's literary high flyers Evening Standard The prose here frequently achieves a quite astonishing beauty Daily Telegraph A novel of fine artistry and stark emotional truth - full of our darkest currents and faintest sounds The Times A writer to read and reread Economist Beautifully written and bitterly funny Financial Times Caribou Island is a scant 300 pages, and written in prose as pellucid as the rivers he used to fish as a boy. But it says so much: about men and women, about marriage, about the desperate gap between who we want to be and who we are Observer


Vanessa writes: As I was reading the opening of this book, which begins with a mother telling her daughter about the day, as a 10 year old girl, she found her mother hanging from the rafters, I knew I was in for a dark ride. And that's exactly what Vann delivers in Caribou Island, his first full length novel since the short story collection Legend of a Suicide. Gary and Irene are a retired couple with two grown children. When Gary, a "champion of regret", wants to build them a log cabin out on the remote Caribou Island, Irene is reluctant but is afraid Gary is going to leave her if she doesn’t do what he wants. Meanwhile her daughter Rhoda is trying to convince herself she is happy living with her selfish, philandering boyfriend. Worried about her parents but helpless to do anything about the situation, she has nobody to turn to apart from her pot-smoking brother Mark. Mark's hapless friend Carl provides some light comic relief but it is only fleeting. There is not a lot to laugh at in this book. In fact, I found myself suffocating almost as much as the characters. This is an emotional ride as harsh as the beautiful, but unforgiving landscape of Alaska, which Vann depicts so vividly. I was gripped right up until the dramatic climax (which made me feel like I'd been kicked in the stomach). I loved it!


Author Information

David Vann was born on Adak Island, Alaska, and spent his childhood in Ketchikan. His first work of fiction, Legend of a Suicide, was originally published in 2008. It won seven literary awards and was selected for twenty-five 'Books of the Year' lists including the New York Times.

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