Shortlisted for the Folio Prize'Unforgettable' – Anne Tyler'Stunningly original' – GuardianOne long last summer for Dad Lewis in his beloved town, Holt, Colorado. As old friends pass in and out to voice their farewells and good wishes, Dad's wife and daughter work to make his final days as comfortable as possible, knowing all is tainted by the heart-break of an absent son. Next door, a little girl with a troubled past moves in with her grandmother, and down town another new arrival, the Reverend Rob Lyle, attempts to mend strained relationships of his own.Utterly beautiful, and devastating yet affirming, Kent Haruf's Benediction explores the pain, the compassion and the humanity of ordinary people.
CONTRIBUTORS: Kent Haruf
EAN: 9781447227533
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
PAGES:
WEIGHT: 194 g
HEIGHT: 197 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Pan Macmillan
DATE PUBLISHED:
CITY:
GENRE: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Life Stages / Later Years, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Death, Grief, Bereavement, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Small Town & Rural
WIDTH: 130 cm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Colorado, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Sociology: death and dying
"The precious ordinary," is the central concern of this remarkable book. Benediction is quiet and nearly uneventful, but it is also unforgettable . . . In the very best sense, it is an old-fashioned novel-virtuous and kind-hearted, dealing with issues that are timeless, In Benediction, a fine contender for the inaugural Folio Prize, Kent Haruf's beautifully spare prose charts the events of that summer with unpretentious aplomb . . . Sensual descriptions of landscape and weather create an impression of timelessness, Haruf handles human relationships with fierce, reticent delicacy, exploring rage, fidelity, pity, honour, timidity, the sense of obligation . . . his courage and achievement in exploring ordinary forms of love - the enduring frustration, the long cost of loyalty, the comfort of daily affection - are unsurpassed by anything I know in contemporary fiction . . . A stunningly original writer in a great many ways . . . He's careful to get the story right. And it is right, it's just right; it rings true, I wrote to Kent Haruf to tell him how much I liked his novels, for the precision of his vocabulary, for the grace that runs through his books, and for the realism . . . I thought, I wrote, of Laura Ingalls Wilder overlaid with Cormac McCarthy. American Wild implies loss, as well as exhilaration, and danger. All of that is there in Haruf, along with a measure of grace and peace of mind, A brilliant end to his brilliant Plainsong trilogy.
Kent Haruf's honours include a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. Benediction was shortlisted for the Folio Prize. He died in November 2014, at the age of seventy-one.
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