The Bird Skinner
Alice Greenway, 2014
Grove/Atlantic
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802121042
Summary
Jim Kennoway was once an esteemed member of the ornithology department at the Museum of Natural History in New York, collecting and skinning birds as specimens. Slowing down from a hard-lived life and a recent leg amputation, Jim retreats to an island in Maine: to drink, smoke, and to be left alone.
As a young man he worked for Naval Intelligence during World War II in the Solomon Islands. While spying on Japanese shipping from behind enemy lines, Jim befriended Tosca, a young islander who worked with him as a scout. Now, thirty years later, Tosca has sent his daughter Cadillac to stay with Jim in the weeks before she begins premedical studies at Yale. She arrives to Jim’s consternation, yet she will capture his heart and the hearts of everyone she meets, irrevocably changing their lives.
Written in lush, lyrical prose—rich in island detail, redolent of Maine in summer and of the Pacific—The Bird Skinner is wise and wrenching, an unforgettable masterwork from an extraordinarily skillful novelist. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1964
• Where—Washington, D.C., USA
• Education—Yale University
• Currently—lives in Edinburgh, Scotland
Alice Greenway divides her time between the United States and Britain. Her first novel, White Ghost Girls, set in Hong Kong in the 1960s, won the Los Angeles Times Award for First Fiction and was on the Orange Prize longlist. She currently lives in Scotland. (From the publihser.)
Book Reviews
Jim's memories of his wife give the novel its erratic heartbeat; thankfully, she escapes the usual fate of a romanticized dead wife and comes across as fully human. Violence has its part in Greenway's thrilling evocation of young love, and so does great tenderness. Their relationship is as fresh as it is heartbreaking. With an attention to detail that's both poetic and precise…Greenway evokes so much more than the weather and mood of her locales. In literature, the natural world frequently exists behind a gauzy scrim. But
Joanna Hershon - New York Times Book Review
Alice Greenway’s quietly devastating portrait of a man ravaged by loss and guilt would be unbearably sad if it weren’t also so sensitively written and gently understanding of human frailty.... Sensitively written and gently understanding of human frailty.... Greenway’s rapturous prose and warm empathy assert that there is beauty to be found in even the unhappiest lives.
Wendy Smith - Washington Post
Evocative...image-rich... The distinctive environments of disparate islands, interwoven with alternately romantic and horrific flashbacks, create a beautiful, ultimately painful story as haunting as its settings. Gifted at evoking places in the past, Greenway is at her most poignant in moments when outsiders and natives, from hot climates and cold, come face to face, attempting to connect across geographic, cultural, emotional, and psychological divides
Publishers Weekly
A visit from a wartime companion's daughter stirs up unwelcome memories for an embittered ornithologist in this follow-up to Greenway's...White Ghost Girls (2006).... Readers who don't mind the novel's leisurely pace and brooding tone will appreciate Greenway's limpid, poetic prose; her richly nuanced portraits of a nicely varied cast of characters.... Sensitive and finely written.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The anchor of The Bird Skinner is the title figure, Jim. What makes this misanthropic man an endearing character? Why do the other characters care about him?
2. Why is Jim so resistant to Cadillac’s arrival? What are his excuses? Are they understandable?
3. Discuss how Jim has set himself apart throughout his life. In what ways has he always been an outcast and recluse, from childhood through old age?
4. With what curse does Jim’s grandfather haunt him? How does this curse manifest in Jim’s relationship with Fergus?
5. Despite Jim’s flaws as a father, Fergus cares for and looks after him. Talk about how their roles as father and son change throughout the story.
6. Discuss Jim’s identification with Long John Silver in Treasure Island. How does his obsession with Old Providence reflect his self-image as a gruff, one-legged pirate?
7. What do Jim’s memories reveal about Helen? How does her death relate to his memories of war, and to his posttraumatic stress? Helen’s story is revealed late in the book. Why might this be the case, and is it effective?
8. Is the end inevitable? Do the demise of Helen and Jim’s thoughts about Papa Hemingway foreshadow the conclusion?
9. After the sailing catastrophe, when Jim falls ill, he is sent to Cumberland Island to recover. As an old man “he sees now how his life followed a distinct trajectory, veering ever south from the islands of the Penobscot, down to Georgia, out into the Caribbean, across to Indochina, finally landing him on the shores of the equatorial Pacific” (p. 213). What has island life offered Jim? How did it lead him to and enable his work? Did the island of Manhattan offer similar opportunities?
10. In the Solomon Islands, the field hospital surgeon is overwhelmed by a new epidemic: “‘Some fifty to a hundred mental cases a day.’ Panic, fear, and collapse had swept through the troops as virulently as malaria or dysentery … ‘War neurosis is the current diagnosis’” (p. 186). Is “neurosis” an understandable response to war?
11. Consider the following passage: “Normalized abnormality is how Dr. Harding diagnoses Jim … Actions that seem abhorrent and even criminal to those still living a civilized life become the norm in war … a certain callousness or savagery is … what a man needs to survive here” (p. 189). Does this justify Jim’s behavior toward the dead Japanese soldiers? What light does the Solomon Island tradition of headhunting throw on his actions?
12. Discuss the ways that Cadillac provides Fergus with the warmth and support that he lacked from his father. What are the similarities between his memories of his mother and his experiences with Cadillac?
13. How does Cadillac’s upbringing in the Solomon Islands influence her ambition, her confidence, and her good temperament? In what ways did her childhood lead her to medical studies?
14. Jim was an enigma to his colleagues at the museum. What do Michael and Laina learn about him through Michael’s assignment?
15. Greenway’s keen eye and knack for description evokes a plenitude of vivid scenaries. What are some of the most memorable scenes and images?
(Questions by Barbara Putnam; issued by the publisher.)
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The Forbidden Stone: (The Copernicus Legacy Series, 1)
Tony Abbott, 2014
HarperCollins
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062194473
Summary
Bestselling author Tony Abbott's epic new middle-grade series the Copernicus Legacy begins with The Forbidden Stone, a thrilling adventure packed with puzzles, intrigue, and action.
Wade, Lily, Darrell, and Becca fly from Texas to Germany for the funeral of an old family friend. But instead of just paying their respects, they wind up on a dangerous, mind-blowing quest to unlock an ancient, guarded secret that could destroy the fate of the world.
Fans of Rick Riordan and Ridley Pearson will love this first book in an exciting series that takes the reader all over the globe in a race to find pieces of a mysterious hidden past—before it's too late. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1952
• Where—Cleveland, Ohio, USA
• Raised—Fairfield, Connecticut
• Education—B.A., University of Connecticut
• Currently—lives in Trumball, Connecticut
Tony Abbott is an American author of nearly 100 children's books. His most popular work is the book series The Secrets of Droon, which includes over 40 books. He has sold over 12 million copies of his books and they have been translated into several other languages, including Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, and Russian. He has also written the bestseller "Firegirl".
Abbott was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1952. His father was a university professor and had an extensive library of books which became one of Abbott's first sources of literature. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Connecticut where he went through elementary school and high school.
He attended the University of Connecticut, and after studying both music and psychology, decided to study English and graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor's degree in English literature. He attended the workshops of Patricia Reilly Giff to further develop his writing after college.
When he began reading bedtime stories to his children, the spark of writing he had had for so many years finally turned to children’s books. After many failures, his first published book, Danger Guys (1994), was written while taking a writing class with renowned children’s author, Patricia Reilly Giff. That book began the Danger Guy series and was followed by five more books (1994-96).
Since then Abbott has written over ninety-five books for readers ages 6 to 14, including many series—The Secret of Droon, The Haunting of Derek Stone, Underworlds, Goofballs, to name a few. The Copenicus Legacy, starting in 2014, is his newest. He has also written novels for older readers, including Kringle, Firegirl, The Postcard, and Lunch-Box Dream.
The author currently lives in Trumbull, Connecticut, with his wife, two daughters, and two dogs. Tony had one brother and two sisters. (Adapted from Wikipedia and the author's website. Retrieved 1/23/2014.)
Book Reviews
[S]trong, ambitious.... four protagonists on a globe-spanning adventure as they attempt to reclaim lost artifacts before a secret organization realizes its evil agenda.... [T]here’s no denying the epic scope of this storyline. Fast-paced and clever...a thriller that engages the intellect even as it rummages through history.... (Ages 8–12.)
Publishers Weekly
[An] ominous message in code...sends Wade Kaplan, his astrophysicist father, stepbrother Darrell, cousin Lily, and her friend Becca on an around-the-globe chase to locate hidden parts of a time-traveling astrolabe built in the 16th century by Copernicus....Characterization takes a backseat to action, but readers won't mind. (Grades 5–8) —Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY
School Library Journal
Right before Wade’s uncle Henry, an astronomy professor in Berlin, meets a suspicious and untimely demise, he sends Wade’s dad a coded e-mail.... leading them...all around the world..... [I]nternational intrigue, fast-paced action, entertaining characters, and a healthy helping of science history. (Grades 4-7.) —Sarah Hunter
Booklist
(Starred review.) Four precocious preteens and a distracted astrophysicist travel to Europe to unravel a mystery that has already claimed several lives.... With engaging characters, a globe-trotting plot and dangerous villains, it is hard to find something not to like. Equal parts edge-of-your-seat suspense and heartfelt coming-of-age. (Ages 8-12.)
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Series, 2)
Ransom Riggs, 2014
Quirk Publishing
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594747359
Summary
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike.
This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.
Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages. (From the publisher.)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2011) is the first book in the Peculiar Children Series. This book, Hollow City (2014), is the second, and Library of Souls (2016), is the third.
Tim Burton's film adaption of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was released in 2016. It stars Eva Green and Asa Butterfield.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—in Florida, USA
• Education—Kenyon College; University of
Southern California
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children—Los Angeles. Along the way he earned degrees from Kenyon College and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, got married, and made some award-winning short films. He moonlights as a blogger and travel writer, and his series of travel essays, Strange Geographies, can be found at mentalfloss.com or via ransomriggs.com. This is his first novel. (From the publisher.)
In his words
I was born on a 200-year-old farm in rural maryland, where at the tender age of five I decided that I definitely wanted to be a farmer when I grew up, because being a farmer meant driving tractors. Then, partially as a result of my new ambition, my mom moved us far away to Florida, where there were relatively few farms but lots and lots of old people and not very much for kids to do.
In retrospect, it was precisely because there wasn’t a lot to do, and because the internet didn’t exist and cable TV was only like twelve channels back then, that I was forced to make my own fun and my own stories—and that’s what I’m still doing, only now I get paid for it. So thanks, sleepy Florida fishing village!
I grew up writing stories and making videos in the backyard with my friends. I knew I wanted to do one or both of those things in some professional capacity when I got older, but I didn’t know how. For three summers during high school I attended the University of Virginia’s Young Writer’s Workshop, and I still consider it one of the shaping experiences of my life. I met so many great, brilliant people, and it convinced me that it was possible to make a life for myself as a writer.
I also knew I wanted to make movies. So I compromised, and went to Kenyon College first to study English, then moved out to Los Angeles to go to film school at the University of Southern California. Looking back, that was a lot of time and money spent on school, but I don’t regret it at all Being part of those creative communities gave me lots of time to practice writing things and making movies before I had to go out and try to do either of those things professionally.
So now I do a lot of different things, which can make for a rambling and confused-sounding answer when I am asked, as I often am in work-obsessed Los Angeles, “So...what do you do? But I will attempt to answer this question, in list form:
• I write books First, a non-fiction book about Sherlock Holmes. Then a novel about peculiar children (2011). Then a book of found photographs with writing on them, coming out in 2012. I'm fairly certain there are more novels on the way. I can feel them clanking around half-formed in my brain.
• I make movies. I went to film school and made a lot of shorts there, then after I graduated I got jobs making short and some book trailers, too, like this and this. I also write screenplays and make the occasional video blog.
• I word-blog for mentalfloss.com. My favorite column is a series of photo-travel-essays called Strange Geographies. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Mr. Riggs certainly is a talented writer with an eye for strange and wonderful characters. Much like the first book, the author uses weird and mesmerizing photographs to compliment the story. However, throughout the book I had the strange feeling that the author might actually be bending the story to compliment the photographs and not the other way around, something I did not notice in the first installment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
[F]ans will be thrilled to know that the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is as hauntingly sinister is the first and is unequivocally worth the wait. It’s a rare sequel that improves on the series’ beginning... A must-read!
Romance Times Book Reviews
With evil wights and murderous hollowgasts in hot pursuit—and only days to save their beloved Miss Peregrine from permanently becoming a bird—Jacob and his nine young (in body, if not age) companions fling themselves through time loops to Blitz-torn London.... Less a straightforward horrorfest than a tasty adventure for any reader with an appetite for the…peculiar.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Apple Tree Yard
Louise Doughty, 2014
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374105679
Summary
An intelligent, erotically charged thriller with deep moral implications.
Yvonne Carmichael, a renowned geneticist, public authority, and happily married mother of two, sits in the witness box. The charge is murder.
Across the courtroom, not meeting her eye, sits her alleged accomplice. He wears the beautiful pin-striped suit he wore on their first meeting in the Houses of Parliament, when he put his hand on her elbow and guided her to a deserted chapel, where she began to undress. As the barrister’s voice grows low and sinuous, Yvonne realizes she’s lost herself and the life she’d built so carefully to a man who never existed at all.
After their first liaison, Yvonne’s lover tells her very little about himself, but she comes to suspect his secrecy has an explanation connected with the British government. So thrilled and absorbed is she in her newfound sexual power that she fails to notice the real danger about to blindside her from a seemingly innocuous angle.
Then, reeling from an act of violence, Yvonne discovers that her desire for justice and revenge has already been compromised. Everything hinges on one night in a dark little alley called Apple Tree Yard.
Suspenseful, erotically charged, and masterfully paced, Louise Doughty’s Apple Tree Yard is an intelligent psychological thriller about desire and its consequences by a writer of phenomenal gifts. (From the publisher.)
The 2017 BBC mini-series stars Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin.
Author Bio
• Birth—September 4, 1963
•p> Where—Melton Mowbray (East Midlands), England, UK
• Education—Leeds University; M.A., University of East Anglia
• Currently—lives in London, England
Louise Doughty is the author of seven novels, including the recently published Apple Tree Yard, which is currently being translated into eleven languages.
Her first novel, Crazy Paving (1995), was shortlisted for four awards including the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Her sixth novel, Whatever You Love (2010) was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
She has also won awards for radio drama and short stories, along with publishing one work of non-fiction, A Novel in a Year (2007), based on her hugely popular newspaper column. She is a critic and cultural commentator for UK and international newspapers and broadcasts regularly for the BBC. She was a judge for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and is currently Chair of Judges for this year’s Fiction Uncovered promotion.
Doughty was born in the East Midlands and grew up in Rutland, England’s smallest county, a rural area that later provided the setting for her third novel, Honey-Dew. She attended Leeds University and the University of East Anglia, where she did the MA in Creative Writing course with Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter. She then moved to London and spent the rest of her twenties in a series of temporary jobs including teaching and secretarial work.
It was her experiences as a temp secretary that provided the material for her Crazy Paving, a black comedy about accidents, Chaos Theory and urban terrorism. That was followed by Dance With Me (1996), a novel about ghosts, mental illness and sexual betrayal, and Honey-Dew (1998), a satire of the traditional English mystery.
Doughty took a dramatic departure with her fourth novel, the internationally acclaimed Fires in the Dark (2003), based on the history of the Romany people and her own family ancestry. It was followed by Stone Cradle (2006) and Whatever You Love (2010). In 2007, she published her first work of non-fiction, A Novel in a Year, based on her newspaper column of the same name.
She has written major features, columns and cover articles for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, and her broadcasting career includes presenting radio series such as BBC R4′s A Good Read and Writers’ Workshop. She is a regular guest on the radio arts programme Saturday Review. She lives in London. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
At the start of Louise Doughty’s taut and psychologically persuasive novel we find [Yvonne] taking the witness stand at the Old Bailey, accused of complicity in a violent crime and about to be exposed in a highly damaging and compromising lie.... This is a novel that explores the ease with which we can stray off our safe, familiar paths and become addicted to the stories we tell about ourselves. A disquieting, perceptive and gripping read.
Daily Mail (UK)
Doughty’s achievement is to imagine a horribly mundane tragedy—the kind that could happen to anyone, but a tragedy nonetheless.... It gives nothing away to state that the comprehensiveness of [Yvonne’s] public disgrace is harrowingly well-realised.... The trial itself is a masterful piece of evasion and selective disclosure.... A compelling cautionary tale of what happens when fantasy begins to occlude real life. "The trouble with stories is, they are addictive," Doughty states. In this case, she may never have written a truer word.
Guardian (UK)
Louise Doughty has written a gripping thriller that calls our own thoughts on morality into question and is impossible to put down. Intelligent and captivating, Apple Tree Yard makes you realise how one bad decision can change the course of your life forever.
Stylist Magazine (UK)
Doughty controls the progress of this narrative beautifully, parsing out information with tantalising hints at what is to come.... Apple Tree Yard is a chilling novel, in part because of the unsparing light it shines on our ability to deceive ourselves. Doughty has a particular gift for unsettling stories, for making us ask difficult questions of ourselves, and this is her strongest book yet. It’s not a comfortable read, but it is entirely compelling.
Observer (UK)
Doughty is a brilliant storyteller who knows how to build the suspense to a breaking point.
Times (London)
If a prologue to a novel is to whet the reader’s appetite, Louise Doughty provides irresistible temptation with the opening to Apple Tree Yard.... Recollection, interspersed with the growing tension as the trial plays out in the Old Bailey, provides a perfectly dovetailed structure. But within the thriller framework lies a wealth of acutely observed detail, a dissection of social attitudes and an examination of lust, trust, predatory sex, risky behaviour and responsibility.... As deftly as her lover lured Yvonne into a high-risk relationship, Doughty has skilfully led the reader to cast aside misgivings and trust her confident lead. That the result is unsettling is evidence that there is considerably more to Apple Tree Yard than thrilling narrative alone.
Herald Scotland
Doughty...drops sharp, shiver-inducing insights, like winter raindrops, on every page.... The story is compelling, but Doughty makes sure that we’re enthralled by teasing us with tantalising glimpses of future events. Her writing is piercing and potent, overpowering emotions captured in sharp, pithy phrases. For all the tachycardia-inducing detail of the plot, Doughty’s view is broad, steeping the story in authenticity. She provides convincing examples of the effects of trauma, such as the atmosphere after a vitriolic outburst at a middle-class dinner party: "ugly and baffled silence...thick in the yellow room"; and describes the larger world, such as a stranger’s personal drama on the street. The court scene is one of the best I’ve ever read, the suspense and tension building to a taut peak. A major theme is how we build up illusions about people we don’t know, and fall for our ideal rather than the individual. Others include the way female victims are treated by the criminal law system, the sly manipulation of juries, and the way a series of facts can be arranged and interpreted in a variety of ways, all telling different narratives. Riveting.
Independent (UK)
Riveting from the opening scene.... [T]this taut British psychological thriller from Doughty boasts just about everything a mystery lover could want.... Eventually, even Doughty’s cunningly constructed and cannily revealed plot can’t camouflage the emotional void at what should be Apple Tree Yard's core.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. Apple Tree Yard opens with a prologue that situates us very close to the end of the story. Why does the author choose to begin here rather than at some other point—for example, the day Yvonne Carmichael and her lover first meet? How does Doughty use the prologue to introduce characters, structure the plot, and create suspense?
2. The story of Yvonne and Mark is told in three parts, all titled with letters: X and Y; A, T, G and C; and DNA. What is the significance of each of these titles? How are they symbols that define the main characters and the underlying themes of truth and self-deception?
3. There are places in the narrative where Yvonne takes great care in describing her appearance—her clothing and footwear, hair, makeup, etc. Where do these descriptions occur? What do they reveal about Yvonne’s state of mind and her values, hopes, and concerns?
4. How does Yvonne describe her lover and their first meeting? What are some words and images that, perhaps, give away more than she intends? Why does she call him X? As you read her first e-mail to him, what did you think would happen in this story?
5. Do Yvonne and Guy have a good marriage? Is Guy supportive of Yvonne’s career? What is his attitude toward infidelity? Is it surprising that their marriage survives Yvonne’s affair, trial, and imprisonment?
6. How do Yvonne’s interactions and conversations with her adult children and her best friend, Susannah, illuminate her character?
7. After Yvonne is attacked, Mark Costley seems deeply and genuinely concerned about her. Does his behavior contradict how he treated her and managed their time together before the events in chapter 8? What does it say about the kind of husband and father he might be?
8. Why did Yvonne decide not to press charges against George Craddock? Might she have made a different decision if she did not think that Craddock knew about her affair? How do you feel about the decision at the conclusion of the scene where she meets with Kevin?
9. By her own admission, Yvonne waits a long time while Mark Costley is in George Craddock’s flat. What is her explanation for why she does this, for why, in fact, she does everything Mark tells her to do that afternoon? How does her version of this part of the story differ from the prosecuting attorney’s? Which version is closer to the truth?
10. We do not learn that Yvonne’s lover is named Mark Costley until the beginning of the trial. Why is this detail withheld? How does not knowing his name affect our experience of the story and what we believe or do not believe about Mark? Is there significance to his name?
11. During the trial, Witness G testifies for the prosecution that Mark Costley was rejected by the national security service because he was assessed to have “difficulties distinguishing the boundaries between truth and fiction.” What are some indications this might also be true of Yvonne?
12. At the trial, Yvonne hears evidence that suggests Mark was not in love with her but was using her (as he used many other women) to play out his fantasies of a more dangerous and interesting life. Yet he killed the man who raped her. Is this because he truly loved her or was it an extension of his fantasy life that got out of control?
13. Apple Tree Yard is the story of a woman who makes bad choices. She begins an affair with a total stranger who insists on having sex in public places. She declines to press charges against a man who violently rapes her, then encourages her lover to confront her attacker. After she and her lover are arrested for murder, she agrees to a plan to hide their relationship, which involves lying to her lawyers and the court. How does all of this fit with Yvonne’s image of herself as a happily married successful professional? What is her worst sin: infidelity, secrecy, perjury, or murder? What are her motivations?
14. In the final pages of Apple Tree Yard, Yvonne reveals two secrets. First, that the document containing her e-mails to X/Mark has been deleted, but not by her. Second, that when Mark took her to the flat she thought was a safe house, she told him she wanted him to kill George Craddock, to “smash his face in.” Do these revelations change anything you believed to be true about Yvonne? What do they say about her relationships with Guy and Mark?
15. The phrase “There’s something I haven’t told you” is central to the outcome of the trial. What are some of the many things that the characters in Apple Tree Yard do not tell each other? What are the consequences? Why does Yvonne tell us that “relationships are about stories, not truth”?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Before I Burn: A Novel
Gaute Heivoll, 2010, (trans., 2013)
Greywolf Press
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781555976613
Summary
An international literary sensation about an arsonist on the loose in rural Norway and the young man haunted by the story.
In 1970s Norway, an arsonist targets a small town for one long, terrifying month. One by one, buildings go up in flames. Suspicion spreads among the neighbors as they wonder if one of their own is responsible.
But as the heat and panic rise, new life finds a way to emerge. Amid the chaos, only a day before the last house is set afire, the community comes together for the christening of a young boy named Gaute Heivoll. As he grows up, stories about the time of fear and fire become deeply engrained in his young mind until, as an adult, he begins to retell the story. At the novel’s apex the lives of Heivoll’s friends and neighbors mix with his own life, and the identity of the arsonist and his motivations are slowly revealed.
Based on the true account of Norway’s most dramatic arson case, Before I Burn is a powerful, gripping breakout novel from an exceptionally talented author. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 13, 1978
• Where—Finsland, Norway
• Education—Telemark College; University of Bergen;
University of Oslo
• Awards—Brage Prize; Tiden-prisen Prize
• Currently—lives in
Gaute Heivoll studied creative writing at Telemark College 2001/02, law at the University of Oslo and psychology at the University of Bergen. He has also worked as a teacher.
Heivoll has written poems, short stories and essays for newspapers and literary magazines and has been included in many anthologies. He has also conducted courses in creative writing in Norway and France and has worked as a literary critic in Norwegian newspapers.
He made his literary debut in 2002 with the short-story collection Liten dansende gutt. He recently published another story collection, Gordeau and other short-stories.
Books include Omar's Last Days (2003), Song of Youth (2005), Love poems at the river bottom (2006), and Before I Burn (2010), for which Heivoll received the Brage Prize.
Heivoll was also the recipient of the 2003 Tiden-prisen Prize. In 2006 he was the Norwegian representative to the Literary Festival Project Scritture Giovanni, and his short-story "Dr. Gordeau" was translated into English, German and italian. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Heivoll has written in this novel about identifiable people, though sometimes changing their names—and this high-risk strategy has been enormously worth the risk. It is existence itself—its mental and physical pains, its blood-lust offset by the many beauties of natural forms and natural affections—that is the writer's subject, not the nailing of particularities to persons.
Independent (UK)
(Starred review.) Reads like a top-tier crime story... The deadpan irony of the dialogue and fetishistic, but sympathetic, descriptions of the crimes are chilly and resonant, playing out provocatively against the first-person narrative.... A compulsively readable novel about identity and the increasingly blurred line between art and reality.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) A thrilling and poetic novel. In this dark and powerful examination of two mens obsessions, Hevioll's introspection and attention to detail are unparalleled. Fans of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City will appreciate the chilling true-crime angle, while Heivoll's dazzling prose will quickly enchant those unfamiliar with this Scandinavian writer. An absorbing story of compulsion, obsession, and the power of desire.
Booklist
(Starred review.) One of Norway's most famous writers investigates a strange series of fires not by examining the ashes, but by looking in the mirror. This is not a crime novel. Except for being labeled a novel, it's not even clear that this ambitious experiment by European best-seller Heivoll qualifies as anything less than the purest metafiction.... It's revealed early on that the narrator is well-acquainted with the real identity of the madman; he's just more interested in the question "why?" than whodunit.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)