Synopses & Reviews
Some believe Bedford, Maine, is cursed. Its bloody past, endless rain, and the decay of its downtown portend a hopeless future. With the death of its paper mill, Bedford's unemployed residents soon find themselves with far too much time to dwell on thoughts of Susan Marley. Once the local beauty, she's now the local whore. Silently prowling the muddy streets, she watches eerily from the shadows, waiting for...
something. And haunting the sleep of everyone in town with monstrous visions of violence and horror.
Those who are able will leave Bedford before the darkness fully ascends. But those who are trapped here from Susan Marley's long-suffering mother and younger sister to her guilt-ridden, alcoholic ex-lover to the destitute and faithless with nowhere else to go will soon know the fullest and most terrible meaning of nightmare.
Review
"[A] distinct and juicy flavor all its own. The Keeper begins what should be a very fruitful career." Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of In the Night Room
Review
"The Keeper kept me up, late into the night....I'm hoping for a whole shelf of novels by Langan." Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners
Review
"Deft and disturbing...twists expectations into surreal surprises...hypnotic reading an assured and impressive debut." Douglas E. Winter
Review
"An astonishing first novel...chilling, haunting, and so smartly written that the pages fly by like the wind." Ray Garton, author of The Loveliest Dead
Review
"A dark and bracingly bleak tale of supernatural terror." Ramsey Campbell, author of Secret Story
Review
"The new author on the block is definitely a keeper..." Edward Bryant, Locus Magazine
Review
"I myself was pretty impressed with The Keeper....It's a little bloated, but mesmerizing nonetheless, populated with vivid characters who come horribly unraveled, and it garnered her lots of favorable comparison to Stephen King." Marc Schultz, "Notes from the Bookroom" (Publishers Weekly blog)
About the Author
Sarah Langan received her MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University. She studied with Michael Cunningham, Nicholas Christopher, Helen Schulman, and Maureen Howard, among others, all of whom have been instrumental to her work. She is currently a master's candidate in environmental medicine at NYU and lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Keeper is her first novel.