Pew
Published on 6. May 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-78378-519-3 (ISBN)
Description
From the author of Biography of X, an eerie modern tale for fans of Shirley Jackson...
'I consumed it. It is the electric charge we need' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under
One Sunday morning, a mysterious silent figure is found sleeping in a church in an unnamed American town. The congregants call this amnesiac 'Pew' and seek to uncover who they are: their age; their gender, their race, their intentions. Are they an orphan, or something worse? What terrible trouble is Pew running from? And why won't they speak?
Unable to agree on how to treat a person they cannot categorize - whether to adopt or imprison, help or harm them - this small town is quickly undone by Pew's terrifying silence. What remains is a foreboding, provocative, and amorphous fable about the world today: our borders and our boundaries, our fears and our woes.
'You can absolutely imagine the novel being made into a dark indie film by the Coen brothers or David Lynch' New Statesman
'I consumed it. It is the electric charge we need' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under
One Sunday morning, a mysterious silent figure is found sleeping in a church in an unnamed American town. The congregants call this amnesiac 'Pew' and seek to uncover who they are: their age; their gender, their race, their intentions. Are they an orphan, or something worse? What terrible trouble is Pew running from? And why won't they speak?
Unable to agree on how to treat a person they cannot categorize - whether to adopt or imprison, help or harm them - this small town is quickly undone by Pew's terrifying silence. What remains is a foreboding, provocative, and amorphous fable about the world today: our borders and our boundaries, our fears and our woes.
'You can absolutely imagine the novel being made into a dark indie film by the Coen brothers or David Lynch' New Statesman
Reviews / Votes
A stranger comes to town, and takes us with them into their estrangement among the denizens of a conservative religious community. The people of this community are stifling, and generous, cruel, earnest, needy, overconfident, fragile and repressive, which is to say that they are brilliantly rendered by their wise maker, Catherine Lacey -- Rachel Kushner, author of * The Mars Room * I consumed it. It is the electric charge we need -- Daisy Johnson, author of * Everything Under * The mercurial and electric Catherine Lacey has now conjured up an of-the-moment fable of trauma and projection - one part Kaspar Hauser, one part James Purdy, and one part Rachel Cusk. The pages shimmer with implication -- Jonathan Lethem, author of * Motherless Brooklyn *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
165 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-519-3 (9781783785193)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Catherine Lacey is the author of the novels THE ANSWERS and NOBODY IS EVER MISSING, and the collection of stories CERTAIN AMERICAN STATES. She has won a Whiting Award, was a finalist for the NYPL's Young Lions Fiction Award, and was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists. Her books have been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch & German. She was born in Mississippi and is based in Chicago.