A Brief Lunacy - Hardcover

Thayer, Cynthia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565124448 ISBN 13: 9781565124448

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2005

Synopsis

Jessie and Carl have made a terrible mistake. They should have been more careful. When Jonah came to their cabin in the Maine woods, asking to use the phone, they should never have let him in. But he told them his campsite had been robbed and he was stranded with no money and no gear. Jessie took pity on him. She was thinking about her own missing daughter, Sylvie, and hoping she was receiving the same kindness—wherever she was.

So, they invite him in, share their dinner with him, offer him a bed for the night. And they discover that this stranger at their table knows all about them. About Sylvie, their troubled daughter; about the secrets they haven't revealed to each other during forty years of marriage. By morning, they realize the young man has no intention of leaving.

Jessie and Carl are now captives in their own home.

The reader, too, is held captive by this novel that seems to unfold in real time. Over the next twenty-four hours, as Jonah's threats escalate, the couple struggle to outwit him and stay alive. Their attempts to escape force them to change roles, one discovering hidden strength, the other giving in to long-concealed weakness. Exposed, brutalized, and lost, each fights to hold on to sanity at a time when the edge of madness has never seemed so near.

Cynthia Thayer is a novelist who has taken her talent for drawing familiar characters—people we really know—to a new level. In this taut psychological thriller, she pushes them to their limits and shakes their secrets free.

About this title

Book Description:

Cynthia Thayer writes about people we know. Or thinkwe know. They have secrets, closely held—out of shame or perhaps because of memories too painful to mention. In A Brief Lunacy, deep secrets are shaken loose as her characters are thrust into a situation both terrifying and, ultimately, revelatory.

Jessie and Carl are a retired couple enjoying a quiet life in rural Maine, until a phone call one October afternoon informs them that their daughter has disappeared from the institution in which she resides. Then, as twilight falls, a stranded young man comes to their door seeking shelter, and thinking of their missing daughter who might also be in need, they invite him into their home. Slowly they realize he knows more about their family than they could dare to imagine, and as the threat of violence looms, they discover that the stranger has no intention of leaving.

Here is a desperate threesome, embroiled in a trinity of madness, yet each struggling alone, searching for answers, for escape, and for sanity. Thayer’s insights into the human psyche make a gripping novel that raises questions about how well we know our loved ones; how we play out the roles expected of us; how far we will go to protect our children; and what it takes to cross the threshold into madness.

About the Author:

CYNTHIA THAYER is the author of Strong for Potatoes (named best new fiction by Ingram Books and a Barnes & Noble Discover selection) and A Certain Slant of Light (published by Reader’s Digest in English, Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish), both Book Sense selections. Born in New York City and raised in Nova Scotia, Thayer now lives with her family in Gouldsboro, Maine. She has taught at the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and at the University of Maine at Machias.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1565124448
• ISBN 13: 9781565124448
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256