On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Gary and Irene’s marriage is unraveling. Alone now that the children are grown, Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, is determined to build from scratch the cabin he has always wanted, believing it will recapture what once drew him to Alaska. Irene knows better. She suspects that the cabin is Gary’s first step to leaving her.
Soon they are hauling logs out to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health. But setbacks begin to create chinks in Gary’s half-baked design, while Irene is stricken with mysterious headaches and troubling flashes of her tragic past. With each trip to the island their desperation escalates, and when winter comes early, the punishing desolation of the prehistoric wilderness will threaten to push Irene and Gary to the edge and end a marriage sustained by pain and rage that has been simmering for years.
A noir novel rooted in a world of profound violence and regret, Caribou Island is an exploration of marriage and exile set against the interminable restlessness of Alaska’s primal landscape.
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"Ordinarily squalid lives of intelligent people clarified and and brought to tragedy by the stark Alaskan place. In my suburban neighborhood people would have just bumbled around without either the insight or the tragic results. " — Tony (5 out of 5 stars)
"Ordinarily squalid lives of intelligent people clarified and and brought to tragedy by the stark Alaskan place. In my suburban neighborhood people would have just bumbled around without either the insight or the tragic results. "
“Caribou Island gets to places other novels can’t touch…This Alaska with its salmon boats and trash dumps becomes a stage for ancient stories of survival and will and connection and love, and also, in the end, the failures of love. Strong poison.”
“In his turbulent first novel, Caribou Island, David Vann portrays a failing marriage with stinging precision. The slow boil of pent-up resentments rang so true I found myself wanting reassurance from my own spouse that all was well…Vann’s first book, the story collection Legend of a Suicide, earned him the acclaim of being one of the best writers of his generation. His first novel is a worthy successor. Abounding in language that heightens our senses for the next evocative metaphor, Caribou Island gives us a climax as haunting and realized as any in recent fiction.”
“[Caribou Island] progresses with tremendous momentum…perfectly choreographed.”
“Caribou Island is tough, funny, sad, scary, and hard to put down. It has haunted me ever since. The bad news (for us) was that the whole novel is so much of a piece, we couldn’t tease out one strand. The good news is that now the book is out: You can read the whole thing yourself.”
“Taut and riveting.”
“A writer to read and reread; a man to watch carefully.”
“An oddly exhilarating horror story…Caribou Island earns Vann a seat beside the masters. A+”
“Vann delivers an authentic story, even lyrical at times. He is a writer headed for notable accomplishments. Enthusiastically recommended.”
“David Vann’s novel is as bleak as the Alaskan tundra. The lives of self-absorbed characters reveling in their dissatisfaction are brought to life by Bronson Pinchot’s mesmerizing narration. He uses intonation and pacing to make each character unique…The listener knows know where this train wreck is headed but still can’t help watching.”
“Vann…renders luminous prose in this haunting tale of hardened hearts and broken dreams.”
“Vann’s brilliance lies in his willingness to expose all…A striking novel filled with the violence borne of a bitter life.”
" Be forewarned, this is one depressing read. The characters are somewhat tragi-comic, stubbornly persisting in creating the most miserable lives for themselves. "
" David Vann's first book really spoiled me. Had I not read The Legend of a Suicide first, I would've given this book five stars. "
" If you get a chance to read this, don't. Boring! "
" Shocking. Not really a Y11 read. "
" I have visited the area, so was interested in the setting. Depression and despair ending in tragedy. "
" well, meh... the book equivalent of watching tv... entertaining enough, just kinda linear... finished in a day, if that says anything... "
" 1 day read. couldn't put it down. "
" A couple with marriage problems attempt to build a log cabin on a small island off the Alascan coast. "
David Vann is an internationally bestselling author whose work has been translated into twenty languages. He is the winner of more than a dozen prizes, including the Grace Paley Prize, a California Book Award, the AWP Nonfiction Award, and France’s L’Express Readers’ Prize. His books include Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island, A Mile Down, and Last Day on Earth. A former Guggenheim, Stegner, and National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Vann is a professor at the University of of Warwick in England. He has written for the Atlantic, Esquire, Outside, McSweeney’s, the Sunday Times, the Observer, and many other publications and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC, Nova, National Geographic, and CNN.
Bronson Pinchot, Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible’s Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People’s Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.
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