In the forest
by Edna O'Brien
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used
- Seller
-
Luddenham, New South Wales, Australia
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About This Item
In the Forest is a newly reissued edition of the terrifying novel from "one of the greatest writers in the English-speaking world", Edna O'Brien. "O'Brien brings together the earthy and delicately poetic: she has the sound of Molly Bloom and the skills of Virginia Woolf." ?Newsweek O'Brien takes her reader into the mind of Michen O'Kane, a murder who terrorizes the countryside of western Ireland, and traces his transformation from a neglected child to a twisted killer. In the Forest is based on a true story of local horror, and O'Brien provides fragments of O'Kane's story while leaving her reader to try and make sense of his psyche.
Synopsis
IN THE FOREST returns to the countryside of western Ireland, the vivid backdrop of Edna O'Brien's previous novel, WILD DECEMBERS. Murder is again the story's climax, but the killer's motives are deeply buried in his psychoses rather than triggered by exterior conflict. Michen O'Kane loses his mother as a boy and by the age of ten is incarcerated for petty crimes in juvenile detention centers, "the places named after the saints." But his problems go beyond early loss and abuse - the killing instinct is already kindled in him. He is christened by fearful neighbors "the Kinderschreck," meaning someone of whom small children are afraid. As in Greek tragedy, there are unwitting victims for sacrifice in the Kinderschreck's world - a radiant young woman, her little son, and a devout and trusting priest, all dispatched to the forest of O'Kane's unbridled, deranged fantasies. Taken from a true story, Edna O'Brien's riveting, frightening, and brilliantly told new novel reminds us that anything can happen "outside the boundary of mother and child," where protection isn't afforded. The villagers of IN THE FOREST see "one of their own sons, come out of their own soil, their own flesh and blood, gone amok." It is an intimate portrayal of both perpetrator and victims - a story that is old, and current, and everywhere.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Petes Loved Books (AU)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- Product_1939
- Title
- In the forest
- Author
- Edna O'Brien
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 2002
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- www.peteslovedbooks.com;