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Original Essays | October 18, 2009

Victoria Hislop: IMG From Leprosy to Lorca — Strange Inspiration



My first novel, The Island, was inspired by a chance visit to a tiny island leper colony off the coast of Greece on our summer holiday. It was a... Continue »
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    The Return

    Victoria Hislop

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The Horned Man

by James Lasdun

The Horned Man Cover

ISBN13: 9780393003369
ISBN10: 0393003361
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Horned Man opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world.

As Lawrence Miller, an English expatriate and a professor of gender studies, tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings, we descend into a world of subtly deceptive appearances where persecutor and victim continually shift roles, where paranoia assumes an air of calm rationality, and where enlightenment itself casts a darkness in which the most nightmarish acts occur.

As the novel races to its shocking conclusion, we follow Miller as he traverses the streets of Manhattan and the decaying suburbs beyond, in terrified pursuit of his pursuers. Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, The Horned Man is an extraordinary, unforgettable excursion into the lethal battleground of desire and repression.

Review:

"[S]tartling, brilliantly mysterious....Introspective readers with a taste for the bizarre will appreciate Lasdun's eerily elusive conclusion, but those seeking definitive closure will be left scratching their heads." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Paula Fox is the undisputed master of the short, spare, eerie tale of contemporary white urban disquietude, in which a seemingly nice individual's life starts to go off the rails as a result of some tiny yet resonant bit of trouble. Her Desperate Characters defines the genre, if genre it is, but James Lasdun is a worthy practitioner of the art. His new novel of low-key disintegration, The Horned Man, comes with Fox's recommendation printed on the back....This, like David Searcy's masterly and underappreciated Ordinary Horror, is Poe for the 21st century, a brainy chiller that finds the most terrifying monsters are those within." Laura Miller, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)

Review:

"Unputdownable....I could no sooner have stopped reading than I could have stopped breathing...a masterpiece of chilling, mesmerizing control." Washington Post

Review:

"Almost every sentence is a delight in its penetration, imagination, aptness, and freedom from cliche." New York Review of Books

Review:

"A tale of Borgesian complexity...reminiscent of a set of nested Russian dolls." The Independent

Review:

"[A] marvelous novel, both compellingly readable — I literally could not put it down — and deeply philosophical." The Scotsman

Review:

"This is an exquisite and frightening book....The Horned Man is a page turner." Evening Standard (London)

Review:

"A remarkable, unsettling novel." Toronto Globe and Mail

Review:

"This enormously inventive, superbly written novel puts more seasoned authors in the shade." Sunday Times (London)

Synopsis:

"Unputdownable'.... A masterpiece of chilling, mesmerizing control."

About the Author

James Lasdun has published three volumes of poetry and two story collections. His story "The Siege" was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Besieged. He lives near Woodstock, New York.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Coni, January 30, 2007 (view all comments by Coni)
After a series of instances that make the main character think he is having lapses in memory, he starts to wonder if someone isn?t messing with him instead. Then murders start happening and he isn?t completely convinced that he didn?t commit them.

I thought this book started off well, but the ending left you hanging. I mean you could figure out what was going on about halfway through the book, but everything became more and more vague as it went on. I guess it is good when the story doesn?t spell everything out for you and actually make you think about what could have happened in reality and what happened in this guy?s mind, but maybe a little epilogue would have been nice. Maybe I?ve been watching too many movies that explain things to me. :)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780393003369
Author:
Lasdun, James
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Location:
New York
Subject:
Suspense
Subject:
British
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Serial murders
Subject:
College teachers
Subject:
New York
Edition Number:
1st American ed.
Edition Description:
American
Series Volume:
172
Publication Date:
April 2002
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
193
Dimensions:
8.52x5.84x.85 in. .82 lbs.

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