Synopses & Reviews
She will never be lonely again...
Amanda is happily married to Ed, works as an architect, and likes her life. But disturbances begin to upset her. Odd noises haunt their apartment. She suffers occasional blackouts, yet there is no medical explanation. She and her husband have petty squabbles; Ed seems less than lovable.
The image of a beautiful woman out of her past invades Amanda's dreams. Instead of a book she had ordered by mail, she receives Demon Possession Past and Present. Soon after, Amanda accidentally burns her husband with a cigarette. Something seemed to take over. She begins to study the book on possession.
Does everything that has happened have a rational explanation? Are the coincidences that have occured just that? Or has she been possessed by a female demon known too students of the Kabbalah as Naamah?
Review
"[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
Review
"[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
Review
"[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
Review
"Polished and unsettling....Horror emanates from the awfulness of life itself, its grim traps and finalities. Come Closer is a nasty piece of work, and short...with a kick that stays with you for days afterward." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review
"[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
Review
"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
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
Review
"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
"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
Review
"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
"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
Synopsis
Instead of a book she had ordered by mail, Amanda receives Demon Possession, Past and Present. Soon after, something seems to take her over, and she wonders if she has been possessed by a female demon known to students of the Kabbalah as Naamah.
About the Author
Sara Gran is the author of the novels
Saturn's Return to New York,
Dope, and
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, the first in a detective series. Her work has been published in over a dozen countries and in nearly twice as many magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Sara Gran now lives in California.
From the Trade Paperback edition.