In the Distance - Softcover

Hernan Diaz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1911547232 ISBN 13: 9781911547235

Publisher: Daunt Books, 2018

Synopsis

FINALIST FOR THE 2018 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION.

'It's as if Herman Melville had navigated the American West, instead of the ocean.' The Nation

Håkan Söderström is a man who has become a legend. Giant in size, rumoured to be bloodthirsty and fearless, he is known simply as the Hawk .

But behind this myth is a tale of longing and survival. As a young man he is sent from Gothenburg with his brother Linus, to seek their fortunes in New York. In the chaos of the port, he is separated from Linus and finds himself instead on a ship bound for California. Determined to find Linus, Håkan sets out on a journey east, moving against the tide of history, experiencing the Gold Rush and its effects, encountering capitalists and colonialists, explorers and early scientists, and witnessing the formation of America and the betrayal of its dream.

This is the story of a stranger in a strange new land, looking out onto the vast landscape in confusion, fear and wonder. As Håkan confronts desert and mountains, heat and ice, he is thrown between the threat of violence and devastating loneliness - all the while keeping the image of his brother, and the hope of companionship, in the distance.

'A brutal, sad, tender coming-of-age story, set in a historical past that feels both familiar and at the same time like nothing we've ever encountered before.' Guardian

'A gritty, dreamy anti-western western... Surreal, cerebral, and affecting beyond what I thought possible.' LitHub

About this title

Review:

'Brilliant... This suspenseful novel is a potent depiction of loneliness, a memorable immigration narrative, and a canny reinvention of the old-school western.' --Publishers Weekly Top Ten Books of 2017

'Exquisite: assured, moving and masterful, as profound and precise an evocation of loneliness as any book I've ever read.' --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies

'With echoes of John Williams's Butcher's Crossing, Andrey Platonov's Soul, and Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica, this is fiction at its finest propulsive, unsettling, wildly ambitious.' --Paul Yoon, author of The Mountain

About the Author:

Hernan Diaz was born in Argentina and grew up in Argentina and Sweden. He lives in New York, where he is associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University. This is his first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Daunt Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1911547232
• ISBN 13: 9781911547235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344