Broken River: The most suspense-filled, inventive thriller you'll read this year - Softcover

J Robert Lennon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781257981 ISBN 13: 9781781257982

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2018

Synopsis

Following a string of affairs, Karl and Eleanor are giving their marriage one last shot: they're moving with their twelve-year-old daughter Irina from Brooklyn to a newly renovated, apparently charming old house near the upstate New York town of Broken River. Before their arrival, the house stood empty for over a decade. The reason is no secret. Twelve years previously, a brutal double murder took place there, a young couple killed in front of their child. The crime was never solved, and most locals consider the house cursed. The family may have left the deceptions of their city life behind them, but all three are still lying to each other, and to themselves. Before long the family's duplicity will unleash forces none of them could possibly have anticipated, putting them in mortal danger. This new novel by America's master of literary rule-breaking is part thriller, part family drama, part Gothic horror - and like all J.Robert Lennon's novels, it shows the consequences of human deceitfulness, and the dreadful force the past can exert on the present.

About this title

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of May 2017: Despite kicking off with a double murder outside of a remote New York home, Broken River quickly morphs into a much quieter novel, filled with a pervasive, slow-burning tension. A new family moves into the house years later seeking a fresh start, but distance isn’t enough to overcome the baggage and deception they bring along with them. Before long, both the mother and daughter, under pseudonyms on the same internet forum, begin to investigate what happened to the previous occupants, setting into motion a collision between the past and the present. Lennon’s intimate look at these authentic, flawed characters highlights the impact their dishonesty has on themselves and those around them. But it’s the Observer, a disembodied point of view that becomes a character in its own right, which allows the narrative to fully explore the ramifications of each choice, and how beholden we are to our fate. Broken River is an elegant, haunting read with implications that reach far beyond its last page. --Matt Fyffe, The Amazon Book Review

About the Author:

J. Robert Lennon is the author of eight novels, including Familiar, Castle and Mailman, and two story collections, Pieces for the Left Hand and See You in Paradise. His fiction has appeared in the Paris Review, Granta, Harper's, Playboy, and the New Yorker. He lives in Ithaca, New York, where he teaches writing at Cornell University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1781257981
• ISBN 13: 9781781257982
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288