Synopses & Reviews
An astonishingly original new novel by the award-winning author of
Harbor (“Captivating”
The New York Times Book Review; “A great, gutsy novel . . . Outstanding”
Entertainment Weekly)
that moves from a newsroom in the American capital to a cockpit over Afghanistan, from an Iranian cemetery to a military intelligence office in suburban Washington, as it
explores a world of entwined conflicts and the way narratives about violence are told, twisted, hidden, or forgotten.
Here are fine-drawn, empathetic portraits of the often overlooked actors of Americas infinite global war: the ridiculed night editor of a prestigious newspaper, an overburdened nuclear engineer, a duty-bound female fighter pilot, a religiously impassioned novice reporter, a sergeant major thrust into the responsibilities of a secretive command. Their longings and loyalties take us, in the course of one shattering year, from a forested city park where child whores set up business to a Dubai hotel where a desperate man tries to disappear, from the nighttime corridors of Walter Reed Hospital to the snow-thickened mountains of the Hindu Kush.
Told in language as stunning for its beauty as for its verisimilitude, The Room and the Chair dazzlingly bends the conventions of literary suspense to create an unforgettable, groundbreaking chronicle of todays dangerous world.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
A ridiculed night editor for a prestigious newspaper.
An overburdened nuclear engineer.
A female fighter pilot.
A religiously impassioned young reporter.
A sergeant major thrust into the responsibilities of a secretive command.
Moving from a newsroom in the American capital to a cockpit over Afghanistan, from an Iranian cemetery to a military intelligence office in suburban Washington, The Room and The Chair by Lorraine Adams—award-winning author of Harbor—is an unforgettable, groundbreaking novel about the often overlooked actors in today’s dangerous world.
About the Author
Lorraine Adams is a novelist, critic, and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. Her novel
Harbor won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, was a finalist for the Orange and Guardian First Book prizes, and was selected as a
New York Times Best Book, as a
Washington Post Notable Book, and as
Entertainment Weekly’s Best Novel of the Year. She is a regular contributor to
The New York Times Book Review and
Bookforum and was a staff writer at
The Washington Post for eleven years. She lives in New York City.
Visit the author's website at www.lorraineadams.net.