Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Part mystery, part domestic meditation and part horror story, "Hell is Davis's tour de force." (Joy Press, The Village Voice) In Kathryn Davis's brilliantly eerie third novel, three households coexist in a single restless vision: a dollhouse; a family in 1950s Philadelphia; and Moss cottage, home of Edwina Moss, a 19th century expert on domestic management. While the inhabitants of the dollhouse are powerless to shape their destiny, the four members of the Philadelphia family dedicate themselves to mutual vigilance, as if it might be possible to foresee or even forestall disaster. Meanwhile, Edwina Moss concedes domestic control to the imagination and, finally, to the great culinary architect and chef to Napoleon, Antonin Careme.