The Forger's Daughter
Published on 5. November 2020
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-61185-642-2 (ISBN)
Description
When a scream shatters the summer night outside their country house, reformed literary forger Will and his wife Meghan find their daughter Maisie shaken and bloodied, holding a parcel her attacker demanded she present to her father. Inside is a literary rarity the likes of which few have ever handled, and a letter laying out impossible demands regarding its future.
After twenty years of living life on the straight and narrow, Will finds himself drawn back to forgery, ensnared in a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's first publication, Tamerlane. Facing threats to his life and family, coerced by his former nemesis and fellow forger Henry Slader, Will must rely on the artistic skills of his other daughter Nicole to help create a flawless forgery of this 1827 publication regarded as the Holy Grail of American letters.
Part mystery, part case study of the shadowy side of the book trade, and part homage to the writer who invented the detective tale, The Forger's Daughter portrays the world of literary forgery as diabolically clever, genuinely dangerous and inescapable, it would seem, to those who have ever embraced it.
After twenty years of living life on the straight and narrow, Will finds himself drawn back to forgery, ensnared in a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's first publication, Tamerlane. Facing threats to his life and family, coerced by his former nemesis and fellow forger Henry Slader, Will must rely on the artistic skills of his other daughter Nicole to help create a flawless forgery of this 1827 publication regarded as the Holy Grail of American letters.
Part mystery, part case study of the shadowy side of the book trade, and part homage to the writer who invented the detective tale, The Forger's Daughter portrays the world of literary forgery as diabolically clever, genuinely dangerous and inescapable, it would seem, to those who have ever embraced it.
Reviews / Votes
Love is strange. It ennobles some people, makes fools of others, and occasionally leads to murder. In Bradford Morrow's lovely literary mystery...the love of books causes all of the above. -- Marilyn Stasio * New York Times * The novel flits evocatively from upstate New York farmhouses to Manhattan auction houses, and there's an aptly gothic tinge to the tense drama that ensues. -- Hephzibah Anderson * The Observer * Evocatively rendered and emotionally resonant, this literary crime novel is the real deal. Morrow's gothic tale bears comparison with Poe's own work. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * An excellent suspense novel. . . . Bradford Morrow is, quite skillfully, paying homage to one of Agatha Christie's most famous whodunits. Yet even then, he offers a few twists of his own and will keep all but the most astute mystery aficionado guessing about the truth until the end. * Washington Post on THE FORGERS * From its provocative opening line . . . Bradford Morrow's latest novel takes on a knowing, noirish tone, like a crime movie by the Coen brothers. . . . The pleasure of reading The Forgers comes not only from trying to figure out what happened to Diehl but also in deciding, chapter by chapter, how much trust to grant the narrator, who is our only source. * Miami Herald on THE FORGERS * The Forgers is quintessential Bradford Morrow. Brilliantly written as a suspense novel, lethally enthralling to read, and filled with arcane, fascinating information - in this case, the rarefied world of high-level literary forgery. -- Joyce Carol Oates The Forgers is remarkable. Bradford Morrow is remarkable. The Real Thing, which is rare on this earthly plane. -- Michael CunninghamMore details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
420 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61185-642-2 (9781611856422)
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
Bradford Morrow
The Forger's Daughter
E-Book
11/2020
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
€6.99
Available for download
Person
Bradford Morrow is the author of eight novels, including Trinity Fields, The Diviner's Tale and The Prague Sonata, as well as a short story collection, The Uninnocent. He is the founding editor of Conjunctions and has contributed to many anthologies and journals. A Bard Center Fellow and professor of literature at Bard College, he lives in New York City.