Recent Books
The Ghost Clause
From NPR:
Howard Norman writes elegant prose — but really, that's because everything about Howard Norman is elegant. The Vermont-based novelist and scholar of Native American lore sprinkles his fiction with all the things that interest him, from literary to culinary to planetary. Like many of Norman's previous books, The Ghost Clause pays attention to Japanese poetry, binge-reading Trollope, what makes an intimate supper (mushroom omelets, salad, cherry pie with ice cream), and varieties of Northeast Kingdom moths.
The Bird Artist
Howard Norman's The Bird Artist, a 1994 National Book Award finalist, is the most exemplary text for learning how to best conjure up a unique setting. This elegant novel is the first book of his Canadian trilogy, and a subtle and hauntingly stark tale of suppressed romances, deep hatred and profound forgiveness. Its narrator, Fabian Vas, is a bird artist who draws and paints the Witless Bay. In the opening chapter, he confesses to murdering the village lighthouse keeper, Botho August, the secret lover of Fabian's lonely mother. ~Da Chen
The Northern Lights
From Publisher's Weekly:
Noah Krainik is a teenager growing up in the 1950s, but this is not the usual'50s coming-of-age story. Noah lives in the northern reaches of Canada with his mother, his cousin Charlotte and, occasionally, his map-making, peripatetic father. It's 90 miles to Quill, the nearest village, where Noah spends summers with his best and only friend, a boy named Pelly Bay.
National Book Award finalist