Between This World and the Next
Published on 8. August 2024
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-1-63206-367-0 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2022 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Praveen Herat's gripping international thriller is a breathtaking exploration of power, identity, unconditional love, and the question of how far we'll go to uncover the truth.
British war photographer Joseph Nightingale, known to his colleagues as Fearless, is haunted by a brutal past and a present that has grown unrecognizable. Besieged by grief over the loss of his partner and unborn child, he travels to Cambodia, where a reunion with an old friend leads him to a young woman named Song. Imprisoned by circumstance, she, too, is longing for a past she can't reconcile and grappling with the disappearance of her twin sister. Soon after their paths cross, Song vanishes, leaving behind only a mysterious videotape, and Fearless finds himself entangled in a web of transnational sex traffickers, corrupt power brokers, and ruthless arms dealers, where nothing and no one are what they seem.
In a place where human life is cheap and violence is just a means to an end, Fearless and Song must go to new lengths to confront their separate demons. Pulse-pounding and poignant, Between this World and the Next balances devastating cruelty with unexpected redemption. In this arresting page-turner, Praveen Herat blurs the boundaries between good and evil, asking us to reexamine complicity and the consequences of looking the other way.
British war photographer Joseph Nightingale, known to his colleagues as Fearless, is haunted by a brutal past and a present that has grown unrecognizable. Besieged by grief over the loss of his partner and unborn child, he travels to Cambodia, where a reunion with an old friend leads him to a young woman named Song. Imprisoned by circumstance, she, too, is longing for a past she can't reconcile and grappling with the disappearance of her twin sister. Soon after their paths cross, Song vanishes, leaving behind only a mysterious videotape, and Fearless finds himself entangled in a web of transnational sex traffickers, corrupt power brokers, and ruthless arms dealers, where nothing and no one are what they seem.
In a place where human life is cheap and violence is just a means to an end, Fearless and Song must go to new lengths to confront their separate demons. Pulse-pounding and poignant, Between this World and the Next balances devastating cruelty with unexpected redemption. In this arresting page-turner, Praveen Herat blurs the boundaries between good and evil, asking us to reexamine complicity and the consequences of looking the other way.
Reviews / Votes
"A dogged thriller with political bite. Herat recalls Robert Stone with his themes of morality, redemption, and uncrossable cultural boundaries. . . . In capturing a place and state of mind in which corruption is viewed as 'the only breach against chaos,' the London-based, Sri Lanka-rooted author has given us a book that won't be easy to forget." -Kirkus Reviews"One of the chilling pleasures of this book is Herat's vivid, knowledgeable portrait of this threatening netherworld, from outposts like the Naga to breakaway states like Transnistria, where money is exchanged for advanced weaponry and private armies are assembled to rule in feudal power." - Alden Mudge, BookPage
"Herat impresses on his first time out, with well-shaded characters and gripping suspense . . . this is worth seeking out." - Publisher's Weekly
"Captivating, immersive, and arrestingly beautiful, Between This World and the Next holds you in its grip as it effortlessly navigates the complexities of our modern world." -Saleem Haddad, author of Guapa
"A hauntingly beautiful story of loss and war and the lives we build around them. Herat's rendering of Cambodia is vivid, dark, and heartbreaking, as three-dimensional as any character. With echoes of Lawrence Osborne and Graham Greene, Between This World and the Next brutally and wrenchingly captures the consequences of modern amorality and the sacrifices we make for redemption. A tale that's determined not to let you go." - I.S. Berry, author of The Peacock and the Sparrow
"After a chance encounter, Song and Fearless, each burdened with trauma, each with grief, set off on an extraordinary journey. First through the Cambodian underworld to uncover the mastermind behind a brutal criminal ring, then across Asia, Africa, and Europe to find and save each other, and finally through a mazy wilderness of arms dealers, spies, ordinary citizens, and corrupt, powerful bureaucrats to see if even in this fallen world, they might retain their fundamental humanity and, just possibly, also find the one true reason to live: love. Thrilling, terrifying, and complex, endowed with unforgettable characters and imbued with great beauty, Between This World and the Next is a terrific, gorgeous novel." - Paul Griner, author of The Book of Otto and Liam
"Set in Cambodia, Between This World and the Next is a tender yet clear-eyed thriller, enlivened by a large cast of succinctly drawn characters led by haunted war photographer, Fearless, and Song-a local young woman who has just about mastered how to keep her nightmares at bay. Elevated by a subtle hum of near-poetic prose, Between This World and the Next is a compelling debut by a novelist who clearly enjoys his storytelling, but also cares about enduring human questions of love and rage, witness and action, and what it means to be good." - Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of Azucar
"An intricate international thriller, Between This World and the Next tells the story of Fearless, a burned-out British war photographer, and Song, a Cambodian woman who has been physically and psychologically marked by the violence in her country. When Song disappears, leaving only a mysterious videotape behind, Fearless must navigate a dangerous network of power brokers, transnational kingpins, sex traffickers, and arms dealers, uncovering a sprawling network of criminality and corruption in a newly post-Soviet world. Praveen Herat challenges our complicity as passive observers when exposed to a constant stream of media depicting suffering across the world and asks what we truly know about anyone, even those we hold dearest. And yet, riven by dark acts, the book is uplifted by love-love between sisters, love of the bereaved, and a remarkable platonic love between Fearless and Song. This propulsive, page-turning novel is a passionate exploration of power, poverty, and greed. With its sharp new perspective, Between This World and the Next pushes the boundaries of what a literary thriller can achieve." -Prize Judges Tiphanie Yanique, Deepak Unnikrishnan, and Ilan Stavans
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
With printed dust jacket
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
703 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63206-367-0 (9781632063670)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Praveen Herat was born in London to Sri Lankan parents and educated at Oxford and the University of East Anglia. He lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for several years, a period that marked him profoundly and prompted his research for what would become Between This World and the Next. Since 2010, he has lived in Paris.