Synopses & Reviews
The eighth book from an award-winning and acclaimed author, The Inhabited World is Long's most gripping and profound work.
Evan Molloy -- a son, husband, and stepfather -- fatally shot himself but doesnt know why. He is stuck in a state of purgatory in the house in Washington State where he lived and died. The woman who now lives there, Maureen Keniston, is in her late thirties and is trying to restart her life after breaking off a long affair with a married man. The novel deftly moves back and forth between the story of Evan's troubled life and Maureen's efforts to emerge from her own purgatory. In watching Maureen's struggles and ultimate triumph, Evan comes to see his own life and death in a completely new way.
Part psychological drama, part absorbing mystery, The Inhabited World paints a stirring portrait of a man caught between this world and the next and a woman who unwittingly offers him a sort of redemption he never could have predicted.
Review
"Long displays a perceptive acuity to the ravages of depression in this wistfully poignant and sensitive novel." Booklist
Review
"Long is a lovely craftsman, with alternating sharpness and gentleness to his style. His portraits of relationship breakups are snapshot clean, often devastating....More impressive, though, is the novel's empathy and forgiveness for all benighted lovers." Los Angeles Times
Review
"The Inhabited World is, of all things, a quiet novel....What Long masterfully achieves is the precise interior focus of a man whose life is circling the drain, and he does this without either high drama or sentimentality." Boston Globe
Review
"Long has a keen and sympathetic eye for observing the daily business of living. He mentions the twitches and the quirks tenderly, and he doesn't fail to note the small kindnesses....In the end, what may be therapeutic for the fictional narrator does not necessarily lead to enlightenment for the reader. For most of us, suicide will continue to be a baffling option." Seattle Times
Synopsis
Evan Molloy a son, husband, and stepfather fatally shot himself but doesn't know why. He is now stuck in a state of purgatory in the house in Washington State where he lived and died. Currently, a woman named Maureen Keniston lives there. She is in her late thirties and is trying to restart her life after breaking off a long affair with a married man. The novel moves back and forth between the story of Evan's increasingly troubled life and Maureen's efforts to emerge from her own purgatory. In watching Maureen's struggles and ultimate triumph, Evan comes to see his own life and death in a completely new way.
Synopsis
Part psychological drama, part mystery, part modern ghost story, The Inhabited World is a deeply affecting novel of love, loss, and longing. Evan Molloy has been dead for nearly ten years when the mysterious, fragile Maureen moves into the bungalow near Puget Sound where he once lived. Caught between this world and the next, Evan cannot remember the events that led to his death, but in Maureens presence he begins to recall his life more clearly. As Maureen tries valiantly to restart her life after a recently ended love affair, she unknowingly offers her otherworldly housemate a sort of redemption he never could have predicted.
About the Author
David Long is the author of Blue Spruce, The Falling Boy, and The Daughters of Simon Lamoreaux. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, Story, and numerous other publications, and has earned him an O. Henry Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Rosenthal Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and many other honors.