Hold the dark : a novel

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"At the start of another pitiless winter, the wolves have come for the children of Keelut. Three children have been taken from this isolated Alaskan village, including the six-year-old boy of Medora and Vernon Slone. Stumbled by grief and seeking consolation, Medora contacts nature writer and wolf expert Russell Core. Sixty years old, ailing in both body and spirit, and estranged from his daughter and wife, Core arrives in Keelut to investigate the killings. Immersing himself in this settlement at the end of the world, he discovers the horrifying darkness at the heart of Medora Slone and learns of an unholy truth harbored by this village"-- Amazon.com.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

205 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Wilderness areas -- Fiction.

Wolves -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Revenge -- Fiction.

Missing persons -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Alaska -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company,

Publication Date:

2014

ISBN:

9780871406675

Publication Information:

New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2014]

Call Number:

GIRALDI

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002897737	Adult Fiction	GIRALDI	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

At the start of another pitiless winter, the wolves have come for the children of Keelut. Three children have been taken from this isolated Alaskan village, including the six-year-old boy of Medora and Vernon Slone.

Stumbled by grief and seeking consolation, Medora contacts nature writer and wolf expert Russell Core. Sixty years old, ailing in both body and spirit, and estranged from his daughter and wife, Core arrives in Keelut to investigate the killings. Immersing himself in this settlement at the end of the world, he discovers the horrifying darkness at the heart of Medora Slone and learns of an unholy truth harbored by this village.

When Vernon Slone returns from a desert war to discover his son dead and his wife missing, he begins a methodical pursuit across this frozen landscape. Aided by his boyhood companion, the taciturn and deadly Cheeon, and pursued by the stalwart detective Donald Marium, Slone is without mercy, cutting a bloody swath through the wilderness of his homeland. As Russell Core attempts to rescue Medora from her husband's vengeance, he comes face to face with an unspeakable secret at the furthermost reaches of American soil--a secret about the unkillable bonds of family, and the untamed animal in the soul of every human being.

An Alaskan Oresteia, an epic woven of both blood and myth, Hold the Dark recalls the hyperborean climate and tribalism of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone and the primeval violence of James Dickey's Deliverance.

Author Notes

William Giraldi is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Busy Monsters and Hold the Dark ; the memoir The Hero's Body ; and a collection of criticism, American Audacity . He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is master lecturer in the Writing Program at Boston University.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Giraldi makes a dark departure from his rollicking debut, Busy Monsters, with this tale of vengeance, which tracks an aggrieved man through the back country of Alaska. The novel starts out slow-and strange. Children are disappearing from the village of Keelut; locals think wolves are to blame. But when wolf expert Russell Core shows up to investigate, he makes a discovery: the body of the latest victim, Bailey Slone, strangled, and the boy's mother, Medora, missing from the scene. Vernon, Bailey's father, returns to town from military service overseas and goes on a maniacal rampage, brutally stabbing or shooting every cop and townsperson he encounters during his search for Medora. His boyhood friend Cheeon, a grizzled hunter even more dangerous than Vernon, joins him for part of the spree. Unfortunately, when the reason for Bailey's murder is finally disclosed, the big reveal feels more like a delayed gimmick than a genuine surprise. Still, if Giraldi set out to write an eerie portrait of depraved behavior set in the boonies, he certainly hit his target. Agent: David Patterson, Foundry Media. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Starred Review. Giraldi's follow-up to Busy Monsters is set in a small Alaskan village at the winter solstice, and the harsh Arctic landscape serves as both physical and psychological backdrop for an unnerving tale that explores where and how human nature gives way to its opposite. After receiving a letter from Medora Slone, a young mother whose son has been recently taken by wolves, wolf expert Russell Core travels to the remote Alaskan village of Keelhut for reasons he doesn't fully understand. Arriving at the darkest time of the year, Core gradually comes to learn that the truth of the situation is far different-and far more sinister-than he could ever have imagined. And it will grow even darker after Vernon Slone returns from the Iraq War to find his son dead and his wife missing. VERDICT Giraldi's back-country Alaska is a savagely amoral place where the constant struggle for survival brings out the most elemental aspects of humanity. This work travels deep into the most ancient and primitive realms of being, offering an unflinching-and more than a little frightening-exploration of the domains of the unconscious that are more commonly the province of myth and fairy tale.-Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.