Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
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Fiction & Related items
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http://nicolelundrigan.com/

THE WIDOW TREE

Nicole Lundrigan

A richly layered, superbly crafted story of fatal plans and silent betrayals in a tightly knit village, where the postwar air is simultaneously flushed with hope and weighted with suspicion.

In the fall of 1953, three teenagers are tasked to clear vegetables in a government-owned field in Yugoslavia. When they inadvertently discover broken pottery and a clutch of Roman gold coins buried in the soil, they argue over what to do with this newfound wealth. Nevena (whose father is a well-respected party member and Commandant of the village) insists they should be turned over as they rightfully belong to the country. János wants to keep them, and unbeknownst to the others, he has a devious plan. Dorján, cautious by nature, walks the line between the two. The decision to conceal their discovery turns disastrous when János disappears. Dorján and Nevena are left to question everything they believed to be true, while the mother of the missing boy, an introverted and guarded widow named Gitta, slowly unravels. Has János betrayed them and used the money to escape the home that stifles him? Or has something much more sinister taken place? Supporting the story of the missing boy is an intricate web of cultural tensions, government control, family bonds, and past mistakes. As the truth behind many closely guarded secrets is revealed, Lundrigan ponders whether hope based on falsity is better than no hope at all. NICOLE LUNDRIGAN is the author of four previous novels. Glass Boys was one of Now magazine's top ten books of the year and Amazon.ca's top 100 books of the year. Unraveling Arva was selected as a top ten pick by The Globe and Mail, Thaw was longlisted for the Relit Award, and The Seary Line was given an honourable mention for the Sunburst Award.

Available products
Book Published by Douglas & McIntyre

Comments

"The Widow Tree deftly dramatizes the ways family tragedies play out against the larger backdrop of national and ethnic interests ... Her writing is so enthralling, and the story so full of suspense and interest, that there is a temptation to allow the pages to fly by when they really should be savoured." starred review!

"The Widow Tree is a richly rendered literary mystery with well-wrought characters, each afflicted with complicated personal strifes they must overcome It's a fabulous fifth novel by a Canadian author more people ought to be reading."

"The more demanding narrative allows Lundrigan to once again showcase her exquisite prose."

"Nicole Lundrigan's fifth novel, The Widow Tree, is a dense book -- the prose thickly woven with metaphor, immensely detailed and often poetic -- that escapes being a 'heavy book' Lundrigan ultimately rewards the persevering with an absorbing, beautiful read."

"The telling is so intense and the writing so compelling there can be no question of setting it aside before the end."