The Coldest Night - Hardcover

Olmstead, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 161620043X ISBN 13: 9781616200435

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2012

Synopsis

Henry Childs is just seventeen when he falls into a love affair so intense it nearly consumes him. But when young Mercy€™s disapproving father threatens Henry€™s life, Henry runs as far as he can€”to the other side of the world.The time is 1950, and the Korean War hangs in the balance. Descended from a long line of soldiers, Henry enlists in the marines and arrives in Korea on the eve of the brutal seventeen-day battle of the Chosin Reservoir€”the turning point of the war€”completely unprepared for the forbidding Korean landscape and the unimaginable circumstances of a war well beyond the scope of anything his ancestors ever faced. But the challenges he meets upon his return home, scarred and haunted, are greater by far.Robert Olmstead€™s riveting new novel is not only a passionate story of love and war, it is a timeless story of soldiers coming home to a country with little regard for, and even less knowledge of, what they€™ve confro

About this title

Review:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2012: Spare. Elegiac. Well-crafted. These are words used to describe Robert Olmstead’s novel The Coldest Night—and all of them are true—but what really makes the book special is the imagery and emotion throughout. A seventeen-year-old Henry falls in love with Mercy, the young daughter of a judge. They run away to New Orleans, where they create their own private Eden, but eventually Mercy’s family locates them and forces the two lovers apart. Seeing few alternatives, Henry enlists to fight in the Korean War. One could read far into this novel and think that it is a book built around young love. But when Henry goes to Korea, the language lifts off to a new level. Though spare in its presentation, The Coldest Night is a novel of surprises. It is emotional and frequently profound. -- Chris Schluep

About the Author:

Robert Olmstead is the author of eight previous books. Coal Black Horse was the winner of the Heartland Prize for Fiction. The Coldest Night was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Far Bright Star was the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award. Olmstead is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant and is a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 161620043X
• ISBN 13: 9781616200435
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304