Castle

A mesmerizing novel about memory, guilt, power, and violence.

"In the late winter of 2006, I returned to my home town and bought 612 acres of land on the far western edge of the county."

So begins, innocuously enough, J. Robert Lennon's gripping, spooky, and brilliant new novel. Unforthcoming, formal, and more than a little defensive in his encounters with curious locals, Eric Loesch starts renovating a run-down house in the small, upstate New York town of his childhood. When he inspects the title to the property, however, he discovers a chunk of land in the middle of his woods that he does not own. What's more, the name of the owner is blacked out.

Loesch sets out to explore the forbidding and almost impenetrable forest — lifeless, it seems, but for a bewitching white deer — that is the site of an eighteenth-century Indian massacre. But this peculiar adventure story has much to do with America's current military misadventures — and Loesch's secrets come to mirror the American psyche in a paranoid age. The answer to what — and who — might lie at the heart of Loesch's property stands at the center of this daring and riveting novel from the author whose writing, according to Ann Patchett, "contains enough electricity to light up the country."

"Do not be fooled by the dull narrator of this latest novel from Lennon (Mailman); the author methodically baits readers with mystery and the macabre until the hook is set and then yanks it back with a vengeance. Eric Loesch returns to his hometown of Gerrysburg in upstate New York and sets out to renovate a secluded farmhouse. A strange bird, Eric is unpleasant and obviously burdened with secrets that, though unknown to the reader, seem to be known by the townsfolk. Childhood flashbacks fill in the gaps, and as the terrifying details of his past coalesce, Eric remains loathe to face the truth about some horrific events. Meanwhile, clues in the present lead Eric to understand that someone or something is out to get him, and past and present meet with violent but cathartic consequences. Lennon's work is full of misanthropes and unsettling figures of all stripes, and the promise of emotional or spiritual redemption remains elusive. Here, the surprising denouement packs a powerful and brutal punch." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this contemporary novel about memory, guilt, power, and violence, a returning resident in a small upstate New York town sets out to explore a forbidding and almost impenetrable forest — lifeless, it seems, but for a bewitching white deer — that is the site of an 18th-century Indian massacre.

J. Robert Lennon is the author of five novels, including Mailman and The Light of Falling Stars. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Harper's, Playboy, and The New Yorker. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife and two sons.