The End
Published on 4. November 2010
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-224-09149-7 (ISBN)
Description
Distant events have thrown us into long, comet-like orbits, far from our origins, but eventually we will circle back on people whose lives preceded and gave rise to our own. We may recognise them immediately. Or else we may meet a stranger for the first time, and while shaking his hand feel vividly that an ancient obligation has finally been kept.
A small, incongruous man receives a devastating letter: his son has died in a POW camp in Korea. It is August 15, 1953, the day of a tumultuous street carnival in Elephant Park, and Italian immigrant enclave in Ohio. The man is Rocco LaGrassa, and his many years of dogged toil, paternal devotion and steadfast Christian faith are about to come to a crashing end. He is the first of many exquisitely drawn characters we meet that day, each of whom will come to their own conclusion.
The End follows an elderly abortionist, an enigmatic drapery seamstress, a teenage boy and a jeweller deep into the heart of a crime that will twist all of their lives. Against a background of immigration, broken loyalties and racial hostility, we at last return to August 15, 1953 and see everything Rocco saw - and vastly more - through the eyes of various people in the crowds.
The End marks the unforgettable debut from a singular new American novelist.
A small, incongruous man receives a devastating letter: his son has died in a POW camp in Korea. It is August 15, 1953, the day of a tumultuous street carnival in Elephant Park, and Italian immigrant enclave in Ohio. The man is Rocco LaGrassa, and his many years of dogged toil, paternal devotion and steadfast Christian faith are about to come to a crashing end. He is the first of many exquisitely drawn characters we meet that day, each of whom will come to their own conclusion.
The End follows an elderly abortionist, an enigmatic drapery seamstress, a teenage boy and a jeweller deep into the heart of a crime that will twist all of their lives. Against a background of immigration, broken loyalties and racial hostility, we at last return to August 15, 1953 and see everything Rocco saw - and vastly more - through the eyes of various people in the crowds.
The End marks the unforgettable debut from a singular new American novelist.
Reviews / Votes
Its moments of sharply realised emotional pull and gentle beauty reel you in -- Siobhan Murphy * The Metro * extraordinary book * Psychologies Magazine * Scibona's skilful debut novel * the Sunday Times Books * The End is densely plotted with an unusual elliptical structure, crammed with clever, striking imagery and vivid passages of almost poetic dialogue... It's a work that does exert a hold over the reader, becoming increasingly gripping as it progresses. -- Amber Pearson * The Daily Mail * an ambitious novel, one that deliberately makes demands on the reader. In this respect it belongs to the classic modernist tradition, and at its best is reminiscent of Faulkner in the density of the prose, and the way it moves back and forward in time while information that would clarify the narrative is withheld. -- Alan Massie * Scotsman *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 223 mm
Width: 142 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
435 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-224-09149-7 (9780224091497)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Salvatore Scibona's first book, The End, was a finalist for the National Book Award; and winner of the Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public Library, and the Norman Mailer Cape Cod Award for Exceptional Writing. He was awarded a 2009 Whiting Writers' Award. In 2010, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and was included in the New Yorker's '20 Under 40' list of writers to watch.