The Gloaming
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
"Deeply satisfying. Finn is a remarkably confident and supple storyteller. [The Gloaming] deserves major attention."
—John Williams, New York Times
"In this richly textured, intricately plotted novel, [Finn] assures us that heartbreak has the same shape everywhere. The Gloaming is chillingly cinematic in contrasting East Africa’s exquisite landscape with the region’s human needs. Yet even in a malevolent setting, Finn shows us acts of selflessness and redemption. Her fascination with the duality of Africa — “the most honest place on earth” — shines fiercely."
—Lisa Zeidner, New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
"A propulsive literary thriller. Finn, who writes with a psychological acuity that rivals Patricia Highsmith's, switches between Europe and Africa in tense alternating chapters, rewarding close attention. The book is terrific... subtle and thrilling. Remarkably well-paced and well-written... Don't expect to be able to set this book down or forget its haunted characters."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred
"Intense, impressive."
—The Guardian
"I rarely get as invested in the outcome of a novel as I did reading The Gloaming, but the empathies that Finn evokes in this powerful and unpredictable book are not casual; these traumas could be our own. [Finn's] prose is hypnotic and knife-precise and at times so beautiful it's unnerving. I didn't read this book so much as I experienced it and it will haunt me for a very, very long time."
—Jill Alexander Essbaum, New York Times–bestselling author of Hausfrau
Pilgrim's husband left her for another woman, stranding her in a Swiss town where she is involved in an accident that leaves three children dead. Cleared of responsibility though overcome with guilt, she absconds to Africa, befriending a series of locals each with their own tragic past.
Mysteriously, the remains of an albino appear, spooking everyone—sign of a curse placed by a witch doctor—though its intended recipient is uncertain. Pilgrim volunteers to rid the town of the box and its contents, though wherever she goes, she can't shake the feeling that she's being followed.
Melanie Finn was born and raised in Kenya until age eleven, when she moved with her family to Connecticut. She is the author of the novel Away From You and wrote DisneyNature's beautiful, haunting flamingo epic The Crimson Wing, which was directed by her husband, filmmaker Matt Aeberhard. During the filming, Melanie established The Natron Healthcare Project, and now lives in Vermont with Matt and their twin daughters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her second novel, Finn (Away from You) follows divorc e Pilgrim Jones from her privileged life in Switzerland to the wilds of Tanzania, offering a dark, wrenching story of loneliness, guilt, and life after tragedy. Abandoned by her international lawyer husband, Tom Lankester, for a mousy mutual acquaintance, Elise, Pilgrim struggles to regain her balance. Distracted by Tom's betrayal, she causes an accident in the Swiss town of Arnau in which three schoolchildren are killed. Although cleared of any charges with the support of Detective Inspector Paul Strebel, Pilgrim, wracked with guilt and tormented by the accusations of the locals, seeks a fresh start in the remote Tanzanian village of Magulu. Pilgrim's desire to live alone in such a place is unusual, and her presence piques the interest of Dorothea, the flamboyant local doctor, and Kessy, "a policeman without laws" who patrols the desolate no-man's-land. As she gains familiarity with her surroundings, moving from village to village, Pilgrim comes to understand that none of the expats she meets is without baggage: not the sociopathic Ukrainian mercenary Martin Martins, nor grieving mother-cum-aid-worker Gloria, nor the skilled, damaged pilot Harry. The arrival of a macabre package the remains of an albino man, said to contain a powerful curse only implicate Pilgrim further in the mysteries of Tanzania. Finn's sure-footed prose, an intricate, clever plot, and the novel's powerful examination of cultural divides enrich this story, leading up to its shocking, brilliant conclusion as Pilgrim and the others search for salvation in an unforgiving land.
