Description
Set in the American South in the years before and during the Civil War, John Wray's hypnotic new novel is at once a crime story, a bravura work of historical fiction, and a fire-and-brimstone meditation on American credulity and corruption.
Thaddeus Morelle's followers call him "the Redeemer." Over the years he has led the Island 37 Gang from stealing horses to stealing slaves in an enterprise so nefarious that both the Union and Confederacy have placed a bounty on their heads. But now Morelle is dead, murdered by his puppet and protégé, Virgil Ball, who may rid himself of the Redeemer but can never be free of his Trade. Based on the true story of John Murrell, a figure once as infamous as Jesse James, Canaan's Tongue is suspenseful and fiercely comic, a modern masterpiece of the American grotesque.
About the Author
John Wray was born in Washington, D.C., and has since lived in Texas, Alaska, Chile, and New York. His first novel, The Right Hand of Sleep, was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Wray is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews
"There is wild, wicked music throughout these pages." -Sam Lipsyte, New York Times Book Review"Richly atmospheric. . . . To read Canaan's Tongue is to be wholly enveloped in its dark world." -The Times-Picayune"This novel is an achievement, easily one of the best by a young American to appear this year." -The New York Sun"Filled with vain, gorgeous language, mystical illustrations and merciless schemes. . . . It is as if Mark Twain wrote an episode of Deadwood set on the Mississippi." -The New York Times"Irresistible, equal parts Faulkner, Morrison and Poe. . . . Wray's magnetic hold on our imagination never flags." -Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World"Wray is the real thing, and Canaan's Tongue is itself a masterpiece. . . . Somewhat resembles-and arguably surpasses in richness and color-Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian."-Kirkus (starred review)"Wray is tapping into essential aspects of American history and culture. . . . Canaan's Tongue reveals boldly and mythically, as few other novels have done, the hallucinatory conjunction of conquest, religious fervor, patriotic gore and the relentless striving for profit that have characterized America from its beginnings to the first decade of the 21st Century." -Frederic Koeppel, Memphis Commercial Appeal"Pure Southern gothic . . . Reads like dark poetry" -Dallas Morning News"John Wray's novel is an achievement, easily one of the best by a young American to appear this year." -New York Sun"The dark side of American history has always been best treated by the novel, and Wray does justice to some incredibly rich and challenging material, forging a style that is as loose and wild as its subjects."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)"An ambitious and strongly allegorical tale about the ability of belief to structure reality."-Library Journal"A powerfully dark story that incorporates Southern culture and the wisdom of the kabbalah with just a touch of the occult."-Booklist
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