A Shiver of Wonder

A first grade girl who can prognosticate but frets about whether she's good or bad, a murder where the obvious culprits claim they had nothing to do with it, a man who is told that he'll meet his future self and then does. A shimmering web of intrigue connects all of these, and a deft literary touch gives life to an enchanting set of fully realized characters.

The protagonist of A Shiver of Wonder is David Wilcott, fallen star of a famously imploded online enterprise. Escaping not only his past but who he had become in the past, he chose the bucolic town of Shady Grove for his rehabilitation, and a decaying apartment complex called the Rainbow Arms for his home. A year and a half into his new life, young Clair moves in with her mysterious caretaker, and David finds himself both intrigued by the child and involved in a struggle to understand all that is occurring around her. Everyone with whom Clair converses appears to alter his or her behavior. And as tensions heighten and strange events escalate, both David and Clair find themselves scrutinizing the relationship between their actions and the consequences of those actions, as well as seeking to stabilize the internal scales of morality that each spends immeasurable time and energy balancing. The many intricate layers of this novel are peeled slowly, slowly away, and the world becomes smaller and larger, more perplexing and yet more entrancing than David ever thought possible.

Steeped in mystery as well as a small town's myriad intimacies, this 63,000-word literary thriller with a paranormal twist is a riveting take on redemptive journey, a road that nearly all us find ourselves traveling at some point in our lives.

Dettagli