Review "Writing that has the cool sharpness of lemonade... Unflinching, unfrilly, multi-layered storytelling that is both beautiful and devastating" (Rachel Joyce)"Hauntingly brilliant, this book will stay with you for days after you’ve put it down" (Evening Standard, Books of the Year)"You're in masterly hands here... will remind many of the great Idaho novel, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping... wrenching and beautiful" (New York Times Book Review)"From the first page it is clear that Ruskovich’s poetic, spare writing would be enough to compel on its own, but this extraordinary story of a violent event that decimates a young family in northern Idaho is the true engine here. It’s a puzzle that enthrals from the outset." (Lucy Clark Guardian)"It’s a set-up that reads straight out of the darkest of psychological thrillers … That an act of such brutality inspires storytelling as beautiful as this is reason enough for this debut novel to stand out from the crowd" (Independent)"At first glance this novel looks like a typical example of the 'post-catastrophe' genre... In fact, Idaho is deeper and broader -- and far more interesting... Ruskovich is not afraid of tackling the messy ambiguity of 'real' life, nor the difficulty of truly knowing another person, and she delivers her revelations with assurance and skill" (Kate Saunders The Times)"Ruskovich’s writing is well crafted and poetic, particularly when evoking nature and weather in the backwoods, and the contrast with Jenny’s claustrophobic prison half-life is extremely well done. A sad, involving read." (Fanny Blake Daily Mail)"Breathtakingly written, haunting and heartbreaking, Idaho lingers long after it’s finished" (Louise Rhind-Tutt iNews)"Devastating... a textured, emotionally intricate story of deliverance... Ruskovich's writing is a deft razor" (O, The Oprah Magazine)"It is two parts Donna Tartt, one part Daphne du Maurier. Ruskovich shares the former's unnerving knack for isolating her characters... and the latter's for psychological suspense and hauntings... bewitching and heady" (Laura Freeman Spectator) Book Description One family, one day, one act of inexplicable violence -- and a lifetime spent trying to make sense of it From the Inside Flap One hot August day a family drives to a mountain clearing to collect birch wood. Jenny, the mother, is in charge of lopping any small limbs off the logs with a hatchet. Wade, the father, does the stacking. The two daughters, June and May, aged nine and six, drink lemonade, swat away horseflies, bicker, sing snatches of songs as they while away the time. But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction.In a story told from multiple perspectives and in razor-sharp prose, we gradually learn more about this act, and the way its violence, love and memory reverberate through the life of every character in Idaho.‘One of the best books I’ve read this year… Emily Ruskovich’s writing is remarkably beautiful, and the fact that she doesn’t provide clear answers, that everything is a little hazy, makes it exactly the kind of book I enjoy’ Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days About the Author Emily Ruskovich grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, on Hoodoo mountain. Her fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, One Story and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A winner of a 2015 O. Henry Award and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she now teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado, Denver. Idaho is her first novel.
E**D
A real discovery
This is a debut novel of astonishing maturity. It’s not a thriller, and if there’s a mystery at the heart of it there is only a tentative stab at resolving it by one of the main characters, and that feels like an attempt to square a circle that resists a neat tying-up.The main protagonists are Wade, his two young children and their mother Jenny, and later his second wife Ann. They live in isolation high on a mountainside in Idaho. We know early on about the act of violence that drives the plot; what we get after that are the life stories of richly rendered characters, a well-delineated supporting cast and a strong sense of place.Some readers may not like the apparent hole at the centre of the story, but for me it only makes the book more interesting and gritty. The choppy timeline, depending on your point of view, is either irritating or an incremental way of telling the story that encourages you to think about what you’ve just read. For my money this is outstanding literary fiction, in which careful prose is harnessed to exploring themes of loss, grief, guilt, forgiveness and love. It’s moving, beautiful and stunning, and I can’t wait to read what Emily Ruskovich writes next.
P**N
Too Clever by Half.
2.5 stars. I’d like to think I was sophisticated enough to appreciate this book, which I suppose can be seen as ‘true’ in the sense that it is fragmented, arbitrary & without closure; but I’m afraid my reaction was much like that of many other reviewers. I found it unsatisfactory, annoying & frequently opaque, & confess I gave up a third of the way through.It’s not that I’m afraid of experimental narratives, but in this case it didn’t work. A reader has to have some commitment either to a character or characters, or be able to appreciate the coherence of the narrative arc, even where it is not ‘realist. This wasn’t the case here, there was nothing to hold on to, no one to like, no overall coherence. It did not evoke the arbitrariness of life but rather the tricksiness of the writer.She writes beautifully insofar as the prose is concerned, but that is not enough without some kind of relatable narrative.
A**R
Slow and frustrating read
This book was given one star because I just couldn't get it. I didn't relate to any of the characters and I felt the author spent too much time describing minute details of insignificant things that she lost the detail of the important stuff. The missing daughter, never found, not a single trace... So much more could've been said and done about that. I've struggled through the entire book. Maybe it's just too high brow for me, maybe I'm a bit stupid. I read this for book club and I know others have struggled with it but we've not yet met to discuss. I was underwhelmed and frustrated throughout. It had the potential to be enthralling but for me it was a disjointed selection of adjectives and was too clever that it forgot the significance of what could've been a touching, emotional, heartbreaking tale.
K**R
Left me feeling stunned and lost
Beautifully written, with powerful, evocative prose, this book opens the reader up to the fleeting, tantalising, elusive nature of unthinking deed and consequence. Frustratingly, there are no answers, no solution, understanding, tidying up. Events we do not plan for, random patterns that unfold in life, a split second becomes a formative dynamic shape. Reading the book I was hungry to know more, finishing it I was disappointed that I still didn't know and reminded of all the unanswered questions in my own life that leave a lonely emptiness that I can almost taste. But as in the book, you can only move on.
D**K
Love, death and disappearance
A disaster in the backwoods totally annihilating a family is central to this story of the lives of those affected to their past, present and future. It's a beautifully told tale of the mental effects of such an incident and also touching on the theme of pre-senile dementia. the skipping from era to era can be a bit disconcerting but this does concentrate the attention in quite an appealing way. the characters are strongly depicted and, despite their human failings, are all likeable. Equally strong are the descriptions of life up a backwoods mountain.
P**R
In parts...
This is a very good novel but I found it disjointed. It tackles interesting themes of rural isolation and dementia but by paralleling these with a murder and a jail sentence, neither of which really convince, it fails to fully draw in the reader.
D**Y
fascinating insight into human connectedness.
I was amazed at the author's ability to explore a large facet of human nature in the face of adversity. Ultimately, we have no control. As social creatures, we DO need to connect with others in order to survive and create meaning in our lives.I think the author randomly picked out deeply challenging situations as a platform for expressing profound intimacy.I'd have loved a few loose strings tied up in order to make it a more satisfying and memorable story.
F**A
Bleak, complex and beautiful
The narrative ranges widely, often meeting new characters which aren't fully explored but which are all tied to the main event. The key characters are beautifully developed and slowly exposed. The book explores the effect of one horrifying moment, but gradually. Not everything is neatly or satisfyingly tied up. The overall effect is deeply profound.
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