Booklist takes a look at Jem Poster's mesmerizing new novel Courting Shadows, coming out in February 2008: "In a bleak English village in the late nineteenth century, John Stannard is a young architect chartered from the city to repair the parish church. Arrogant, self-righteous, and impervious to local sensitivities, Stannard narrates this claustrophobic story of modernity at odds with primitivism. His introduction to the villagers at Sunday service offers a brief glimpse of Ann Rosewell, a striking young woman who appears at odds with the sullen congregation around her. Discovering more about her through the nervous, well-meaning rector, Stannard pieces together a lofty ideal of the girl's background. A random meeting with her serves only to disappoint, and leering input from his team of construction workers further deters him, yet he remains curiously drawn to her. As their relationship tentatively progresses, his work at the church is marked with unsettling episodes that begin to wreak an effect on his mental and physical health, and the well-being of those around him. Written in lavishly beautiful prose, this is a consistently tense tale of rationality, self-delusion, and epidemic superstition."
Friday, January 11, 2008
Jem Poster's COURTING SHADOWS Reviewed in Booklist
Booklist takes a look at Jem Poster's mesmerizing new novel Courting Shadows, coming out in February 2008: "In a bleak English village in the late nineteenth century, John Stannard is a young architect chartered from the city to repair the parish church. Arrogant, self-righteous, and impervious to local sensitivities, Stannard narrates this claustrophobic story of modernity at odds with primitivism. His introduction to the villagers at Sunday service offers a brief glimpse of Ann Rosewell, a striking young woman who appears at odds with the sullen congregation around her. Discovering more about her through the nervous, well-meaning rector, Stannard pieces together a lofty ideal of the girl's background. A random meeting with her serves only to disappoint, and leering input from his team of construction workers further deters him, yet he remains curiously drawn to her. As their relationship tentatively progresses, his work at the church is marked with unsettling episodes that begin to wreak an effect on his mental and physical health, and the well-being of those around him. Written in lavishly beautiful prose, this is a consistently tense tale of rationality, self-delusion, and epidemic superstition."
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