Synopses & Reviews
"Endlessly inventive . . .
Mount Terminus reads at times like a more carefully modulated version of Donna Tartts
The Goldfinch. Or you might think of it as Marisha Pessls
Night Film on lithium.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
After his mothers death, young Bloom boards a train with his bereaved father, Jacob, to Mount Terminus, their new home at the desolate end of the world. In a villa built atop a rare desert spring, they live apart from society, supported by the income from Jacobs invention: the Rosenbloom Loop, a piece of technology that has revolutionized the nascent art of filmmaking. There, Bloom grows up in the shadow of his fathers grief. But Jacob cant protect his family from the drama of his past forever, and Bloom, who has budded into an eccentric genius, cant live alone at the top of a mountain. Prodded by his newly discovered half-brother, a man of startling ambitions, Bloom must come down and meet the world.
A triumph of imagination, Mount Terminus is a dark, majestic novel about art, family, overwhelming love, and the birth of Los Angeles: "a spellbinding, atmospheric epic from a writer at the top of his game" (Wesley Stace).
Review
"Stunning . . . From the very first page you can tell this is not your average novel."—
GQ“Endlessly inventive . . . Mount Terminus reads at times like a more carefully modulated version of Donna Tartts The Goldfinch. Or you might think of it as Marisha Pessls Night Film on lithium.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"A work from which Harvey Weinstein might make a terrific, multilayered film . . . Bloom is a marvelously realized character."—Owen King, The New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice)
"A wide-screen allegory . . . Its a brooding tale with big themes—love, loss, rebirth.”—Entertainment Weekly
"Remarkable . . . At one point in the novel Jacob tells his son, ‘This world of ours . . . it is a world of wondrous surprises. He may as well have been referring to Mount Terminus."—Chicago Tribune
"Mount Terminus is serious and funny, singular and rousing: a strange and memorable American monument in prose. It begins formidably and keeps growing. Best of all, it will bring David Grand into full recognition as one of the major writers working today."—Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng and Half a Life
"Mount Terminus is a spellbinding, atmospheric epic from a writer at the top of his game. Its a story layered with transformations: Blooms blossoming into an artist, the California deserts urbanization, and, brilliantly, the photographs development into the moving image. Mount Terminus is cinematic in scope and narrative: a richly imagined masterpiece brought to you in GRANDVISION™." —Wesley Stace, author of Misfortune and Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer
"Few novels set in motion an entire world, as this one does an imagined Los Angeles. Mount Terminus is as mercurial, witty, and sad as the best silent film. With his beautifully measured and stylish prose, David Grand has managed to create a rare story that is both epic and intimate, both intelligent and full of heart. I wont ever forget the pure joy of Bloom the artist, alone as he is in this lost, majestic landscape." —Rene Steinke, author of The Fires and Holy Skirts
"I look to David Grand not just as a fellow writer but as a master of his craft. Mount Terminus is dark, elegant, and rich, his best book to date. It is also one of the finest, most elegiac novels about California Ive ever read." —Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Super Sad True Love Story
About the Author
David Grand is the author of Louse and The Disappearing Body. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and twin sons.