Synopses & Reviews
Impossible to categorize, With is a sensual, irresistible tale, full of unexpected twists and turns. What starts out as a suspenseful recounting of child abduction evolves into the story of eight-year-old Robin Kerr growing up in the wilds of the Ozarks, left to fend for herself on a remote, inaccessible mountain-top. Without "human" company for a decade, forced to live off the land, Robin is never alone; her animal companions grow more numerous year by year, and the "live ghost" of a young boy who once lived on the mountain is her constant companion. With a dog, a young girl and a ghost as the main viewpoint characters in this remarkable novel, Donald Harington, creator of the mythic and magical Ozark town of Stay More, has given us a fascinating and triumphant story of survival and the most original love story ever told.
Review
"[R]ichly imagined, lovingly rendered....With his delightful twelfth novel, Harington might finally be destined to lose the ironic designation 'America's greatest unknown novelist.'" Frank Sennett, Booklist (Starred Review)
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"[A] rare entertainment...the supreme pleasure of this novel is to watch Harington turn literary problems into literary pleasures, disdaining once again to play it safe. Above all, he is among our most daring Makers." Tom D'Evelyn, The Providence Journal
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"It's sexy, funny, and reaches a splendid crescendo as Robin grows into the full power of her womanhood....A key work in Harington's one-of-a-kind oeuvre." Kirkus Reviews
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"If any more life-affirming, more surprising, more beautifully written novel has been published in recent years, I've missed it. Don't you, fellow readers, miss this one." James Sallis, The Boston Globe
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"Harington crafts a wildly imaginative tour de force....Harington has invented a unique post-Faulknerian piece of fictional terrain...and this powerful effort should further enhance his reputation as one of the great undiscovered novelists of our time." Publishers Weekly
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"With is a joy to read, partly due to the variety of audacious techniques Harington uses....With is as whimsical as a paper-doll show while being deeply rooted in the earth...and should find the wide readership that Harington so richly deserves." Steven Moore, The Washington Post Book World
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"[I]maginative but uneven....Harington works so hard at establishing his fantasy (beautiful girl growing up naked in the wild, with beasts) that he erases any sense of mystery and makes his world seem almost mundane." The New Yorker
Review
"With is very beautiful....The book is Donald Harington at full stretch, with all that immensity of feeling that elevates his best books." Peter Straub, author of Lost Boy Lost Girl
Synopsis
The newest novel of the master of Stay More, Harington's mythical village in the Arkansas Ozarks. A peaceable kingdom is created in isolation from a most bizarre abduction gone wrong.
About the Author
Acclaimed by critics as "an undiscovered continent" and "America's greatest un- known novelist," Donald Harington is a brilliant creator of fictional worlds, rooted in his native Arkansas. His imagination is no less expansive than Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his language is rich in a uniquely American, southern idiom. Winner of the Robert Penn Warren Award, the Porter Prize, and the Heasley Prize, the Toby Press is delighted to be publishing With, his thirteenth novel, as well as three new editions of other novels in the Stay More cycle.