The Heart of a Distant Forest - Hardcover

Williams, Philip Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393018369 ISBN 13: 9780393018363

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1984

Synopsis

Retired to his family home on a Georgia lake and facing death, former history professor Andrew Lachlan becomes alive to the wonders of nature and enters new relationships with a country boy named Willie Sullivan and a former love, Callie MacKenzie

About this title

About the Author:

Philip Lee Williams is the author of fourteen books, including The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset (Georgia) and a volume of poetry, Elegies for the Water. His most recent novel is The Campfire Boys. He is a winner of many literary awards and a Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities and will be inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2010. He lives with his family in Oconee County, Georgia.

Review:

Williams's The Heart of a Distant Forest is, quite simply, one of the finest works of fiction in the history of Georgia literature―a lyrical, tender story of a man who rediscovers his life on his journey to death. Williams's writing is more than masterful storytelling; it is word―art. The South has few writers his equal.

(Terry Kay author of The Valley of Light)

It is precisely because Lachlan is not a larger-than-life character that we come to care and find ourselves moving eagerly with him from one day to the next.

(New York Times Book Review)

An auspicious talent . . . Williams handles his heavily weighted theme adroitly, never overstepping into sentimentality. His writing is colorful, knowledgeable, taut. . . . An unexpectedly rich reading experience.

(Fort Worth News-Tribune)

The Heart of a Distant Forest is like Shadow Pond, where Lachlan lives: natural, nourishing, quiet, and turbulent, inviting, and―in places―deep. Test it for yourself.

(Knoxville News-Sentinel)

Williams has a particular gift for creating beautiful imagery that encompasses not only a particular scene, but also the emotions associated with it. The Heart of a Distant Forest is, in short, a beautifully written work by a talented Southern author.

(Spartanburg Herald-Journal)

Despite its somber undertones, the novel resonates with a deeper joy and optimism. . . . An elegantly moving portrait of life's dignity, even at death.

(Booklist)

One sentence into the book and you've got lyric poetry; 'Morning is rising in silence.' Lovely. It gets even better with passages you underline for sheer beauty, delight, and wisdom. Between these pages rests some of the best writing I've come across since Alice Walker's The Color Purple, but in a very quiet and very different way and life and tone.

(Columbia State)

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0393018369
• ISBN 13: 9780393018363
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 221