William Giraldi

Hold the Dark - A Novel William Giraldi

Marc Notes: Originally published: Harpenden: No Exit Press, 2015.; At the start of another pitiless winter, the wolves have come for the children of Keelut. Three have been taken from the 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. 60 years old, ailing in both body and spirit, and estranged from his daughter and wife, he arrives in Keelut to investigate. 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 the unholy truth harboured by the village. Review Quotes: A chilling, mysterious, and completely engaging novel that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. The cold and unforgiving Alaskan wild becomes much more than a backdrop for this spellbinding story. It becomes a character a living creature with its own hungers, its own secrets, its own icy motives, its own implacable will. I was entranced. --Tim O'Brien"Review Quotes: Hold the Dark is a chilling, mysterious, and completely engaging novel that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. The cold and unforgiving Alaskan wild becomes much more than a backdrop for this spellbinding story. It becomes a character a living creature with its own hungers, its own secrets, its own icy motives, its own implacable will. I was entranced. --Tim O'Brien"Review Quotes: Snow, ice, wolves, murder, and dark love are encountered in Hold the Dark, William Giraldi's hard, unflinching, and powerful novel. This story and the telling of it have the clout and rigor of a Norse Saga. --Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter s Bone"Review Quotes: Hold the Dark is a powerful meditation on nature, violence and responsibility with the concentration of a fable or fever dream a book hard to get out of your mind long after you've put it down. --Thomas McGuane"Review Quotes: [F]ierce, extraordinary . Hold the Dark is an unnerving and intimate portrayal of nature gone awry. It s all but bereft of levity, spectacularly violent and exquisitely written. --John Wilwol"Review Quotes: There's an oddness and otherness to this place, and Giraldi speaks its taut, original language. To appreciate its power fully, Hold the Dark should be read closely not so much for clues to the mystery, but rather for an appreciation of how language bridges worlds. --Elizabeth Taylor"Review Quotes: 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. "Review Quotes: [F]ierce, extraordinary . An unnerving and intimate portrayal of nature gone awry. . . . Spectacularly violent and exquisitely written. --John Wilwol"Review Quotes: Maybe it all began with Graham Greene s Brighton Rock in 1938, but there is a variety of modern thriller, created these days by Robert Stone and Denis Johnson at their best, that delivers narrative thrust and beautifully composed sentences by the pageful even as it peels away the thin membrane that separates entertainment from art, and nature from civilization. Here s Boston writer William Giraldi adding to the slender ranks of such masterly fiction [Hold the Dark] certainly stands out as one of the decade s best books of its kind, and one that deserves, because of its stylish flaunting of some of our darkest fears, a future readership. --Alan Cheuse"Review Quotes: A taut, muscular and often unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness. Epic, relentless, and beautifully realized. --Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River"Publisher Marketing: Written with force and precision and grace (John Wilwol, New York Times Book Review) Hold the Dark is a taut and unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness (Dennis Lehane). At the start of another pitiless winter, wolves have taken three children from the remote Alaskan village of Keelut, including the six-year-old son of Medora and Vernon Slone. Wolf expert Russell Core is called in to investigate these killings and discovers an unholy truth harbored by Medora before she disappears. When her husband returns home to discover his boy dead and his wife missing, he begins a maniacal pursuit that cuts a bloody swath across the frozen landscape. With the help of a local police detective, Core attempts to find Medora before her husband does, setting in motion a deadly chain of events in this chilling, mysterious, and completely engaging novel (Tim O Brien) that marks the arrival of a major American writer." Review Citations:

Books & Culture 07/01/2014 pg. 29 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Booklist 07/01/2014 pg. 33 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly 07/07/2014 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2014 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 92 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

New York Times Book Review 09/07/2014 pg. 16 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Shelf Awareness 09/09/2014 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

New Yorker (The) 11/24/2014 pg. 127 (EAN 9780871406675, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Giraldi, William William Giraldi is the author of the novels "Busy Monsters" and "Hold the Dark".