Synopses & Reviews
Amanda is happily married to Ed, works as an architect, and likes her life. But disturbances begin to upset her. Odd noises start to haunt their apartment. A practical joker seems determined to sabotage her at work. She has occasional blackouts, but there is no medical explanation. She and her husband start to have petty squabbles; Ed seems less lovable than he used to be.
The image of a beautiful woman out of her past begins to inhabit Amanda's dreams. But in one dream the woman identifies herself as Naamah. Instead of the book she had ordered by mail, she receives Demon Possession, Past and Present. Soon after, Amanda accidentally burns her husband with her cigarette. Can she be going mad? Or has she been possessed by a female demon, Naamah, known to students of the Kabbalah?
Review
"Polished and unsettling....Come Closer is a nasty piece of work, and short ideal for an evening's reading, with a kick that stays with you for days afterward." The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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"[An] effectively understated account of...demonic possession....Gran demonstrates that an urbane and subtle approach to ideas more often treated with hysteria and flash can still produce a gripping contemporary tale of terror." Publishers Weekly
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"[A] decidedly creepy departure from [Gran's] debut....[F]ast-paced and claustrophobic....'The Yellow Wallpaper' meets Rosemary's Baby in a slim, wonderfully eerie novel." Kirkus Reviews
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"[A] sparsely constructed and compellingly succinct gem of a novel....Seductively menacing, alluringly sinister, Gran's ominous study of psychological and spiritual suspense heralds a refreshingly sophisticated and literate approach to an often-predictable genre." Booklist
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"This year's scariest novel." Time Out New York
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"[I]t's safe to say that the supernatural is a subject for which Gran has some affinity....At less than 200 pages, Come Closer is a quick read but not one that the reader will quickly forget." Library Journal
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"What begins as a sly fable about frustrated desire evolves into a genuinely scary novel about possession and insanity. Hypnotic, disturbing, and written with such unerring confidence you believe every word, Come Closer is one of the most precise and graceful pieces of fiction I've read in a long time." Bret Easton Ellis
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"Come Closer is sharp and strange and, best of all, at the moment of truth it doesn't flinch from its own mad logic." Sam Lipsyte, author of The Subject Steve
Review
"I read Come Closer on the train, in a snowstorm, on a cold December night. It was the right atmosphere for this perfectly noirish tale of madness and love. Sara Gran writes wiith scalpel-like clarity, expertly blending tones to create a new kind of psychological thriller. I loved this book. Days after finishing iit, it has not left my mind." George Pelecanos, author of Hard Revolution
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"Sara Gran has written an intelligent horror story, a literary creepshow that works its magic subtly and well. It's a marvel of restraint and taste, and still it worms its way under your skin and stays there." Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng
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"Sara Gran's Come Closer ought to carry a warning to readers. It's impossible to begin this intense, clever, beautifully written novel without turning every page. A wonderful accomplishment." Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture
Review
"Like Patricia Highsmith, Sara Gran has a knack for exposing the terror that lurks beneath our everyday lives. Come Closer is a gripping, bitterly funny psychological thriller." Jason Starr, author of Hard Feelings
Review
"'What we think is impossible happens all the time.' So claims the beguiling narrator of Come Closer, and after reading this spare and menacing tale, the reader has to agree. Sara Gran has created a sly, satisfying (fast!) novel off one young woman possessed not only by a demon but also by her own secret desires." Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country
Synopsis
If everything in Amanda's life is so perfect, then why the mood swings, the obscene thoughts, the urge to harm the people she loves? What are those tapping sounds in the walls? And who's that woman following her? The mystery behind what's happening to Amanda in Come Closer is so frightening that it "ought to carry a warning to...readers."
About the Author
Sara Gran is also the author of Saturn's Return to New York and the upcoming Dope. A native of Brooklyn, New York, and a former bookseller, Ms. Gran now divides her time between New York and New Orleans.