Synopses & Reviews
As summer draws to a close, a Small Long Island town is plagued by a series of mysterious deaths— and one young man, a loner taken in by a local, tries to piece together the crimes before his own time runs out.
Orient is an isolated hamlet on the North Fork of Long Island—a quiet, historic village that swells each summer with vacationers, Manhattan escapees, and wealthy young artists from the city with designs on local real estate. On the last day of summer, a teenage drifter named Mills Chevern arrives in town. Soon after, the village is rocked by a series of unsettling events: the local caretaker is found floating lifeless in the ocean; an elderly neighbor dies under mysterious circumstances; and a monstrous animal corpse is discovered on the beach not far from a research lab often suspected of harboring biological experiments. Before long, other more horrific events plunge the community into a spiral of paranoia.
As the village struggles to make sense of the wave of violence, anxious eyes settle on the mysterious Mills, a troubled orphan with no family, a hazy history, and unknown intentions. But he finds one friend in Beth, an Orient native in retreat from Manhattan, who is determined to unravel the mystery before the small town devours itself.
Suffused with tension, rich with character and a haunting sense of lives suspended against an uncertain future, Orient is both a galvanic thriller and a provocative portrait of the dark side of the American dream: an idyllic community where no one is safe. It marks the emergence of a novelist of enormous talent.
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Praise for
Lightning People“Ambitious. . . a nervy debut illuminated by flashes of insight.” < i=""> Wall Street Journal <>
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“Brimming with the verve and stamina of real people searching for meaning in a city beset by calamity . . . Lightning People demonstrates the vigor and audacity of a formidable new voice.” < i=""> Publishers Weekly <>
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“Bollen excels at creating an atmosphere of Manhattan-specific dread, and certain scenes, particularly the account of a struggling actors going-away party, are tragicomic masterpieces.” < i=""> The New Yorker <>
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“Heightened, poignant, and mysterious. . . Bollens atmospheric tale of post-9/11 New York has more twists and toxicity than the venemous snakes Del cares for at the Bronx Zoo. . . his frantic characters are alluring, his writing ravishing, and his insights trenchant.” < i=""> Booklist <>
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“Orient is a compelling novel of tragic suspense. Bollen has a gift for tightly drawn characters and an ominous sense of place.” A. M. Homes
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Advance Praise for Orient “The quaint seaside village of Orient is not as pleasant as it seems, and Christopher Bollen will hold you spellbound as he reveals its secrets. A truly well-crafted and literate murder mystery that recalls the worlds of both P.D. James and Twin Peaks.” Nelson DeMille
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“Orient is a taut and elegant suspense novel about strangers and strangeness, suspicion and forgiveness, reinvention and confession.” Joshua Ferris, author of < i=""> To Rise Again At A Decent Hour <>
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“The Great Gatsby meets Donna Tartt. Suspenseful, beautifully written, and wonderfully atmospheric, Orient is that rare treat that is both a page-turner and a book you will want to savor.” Philipp Meyer
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“…a gorgeously written book whose literary chops are beyond doubt. Come for the prose, and stay for the murders.” < i=""> USA Today <>
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“The book is a classic page-turner that would make a fine companion to a towel and beach chair, but also delves deeper into modern paranoia regarding money, class and sexuality.” < i=""> Newsday <>
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“This is a long, engrossing small-town novel….[t]he characters are drawn in vivid detail, and the atmosphere is thickly enveloping.” < i=""> New York Times <>
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“This is beach reading thats as intelligent as it is absorbing.” < i=""> People <>
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“Bollen keeps you guessing until the end of this intriguing, fatalistic novel.” < i=""> Miami Herald <>
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“…a book of real intelligence and line-by-line dexterity…” < i=""> Chicago Tribune <>
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“Bollen takes a real place--the North Folk of Long Island--and weaves a mesmerizing fictional web of characters and mysteries into a story that is as viscerally thrilling as it is intellectually precise.” < i=""> BookPage <>
Synopsis
A gripping novel of culture clash and murder: as summer draws to a close, a small Long Island town is gripped by a series of mysterious deaths—and one young man, a loner taken in by a local, tries to piece together the crimes before his own time runs out.
Orient is an isolated town on the north fork of Long Island, its future as a historic village newly threatened by the arrival of wealthy transplants from Manhattan—many of them artists. One late summer morning, the body of a local caretaker is found in the open water; the same day, a monstrous animal corpse is found on the beach, presumed a casualty from a nearby research lab. With rumors flying, eyes turn to Mills Chevern—a tumbleweed orphan newly arrived in town from the west with no ties and a hazy history. As the deaths continue and fear in town escalates, Mills is enlisted by Beth, an Orient native in retreat from Manhattan, to help her uncover the truth. With the clock ticking, Mills and Beth struggle to find answers, faced with a killer they may not be able to outsmart.
Rich with character and incident, yet deeply suspenseful, Orient marks the emergence of a novelist of enormous talent.
About the Author
Christopher Bollen is an editor at large for Interview magazine. He is the author of the novel Lightning People, and his work has appeared in GQ, the New York Times, the Believer, and Artforum, among other publications. He lives in New York.