A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.
"This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it, but I do." The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs with the devastating violence of prison life.
Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners’ pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honesty and corruption—ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.
Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.
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“Narrator Jim Frangione’s soft voice and storyteller’s cadence have an edge that hints at the creepiness and evil found in the basement cells of Death Row…Frangione maintains the dreamlike quality of his performance, building listeners’ sympathy even as they are appalled by what they learn…Although the subject matter of this debut novel is sometimes disturbing, the deeper questions of humanity, redemption, and family linger long after Frangione’s masterful reading has ended. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
“[An] impressive debut…Read this magical book and prepare to be spellbound.”
— Library Journal (starred review)“A striking one-of-a-kind prison novel…[with] rich, haunting prose…A stunning first novel from an already accomplished writer.”
— Publishers Weekly“The Enchanted wrapped its beautiful and terrible fingers around me from the first page and refused to let go after the last. A wondrous book that finds transcendence in the most unlikely of places…So dark yet so exquisite.”
— Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus“The Enchanted is unlike anything I’ve ever read…Contagious and seductive. The reader comes to see through Denfeld’s strange lens and to savor the richness of the view long after the final page has turned.”
— Katherine Dunn, National Book Award finalist“Rene Denfeld is a genius. In The Enchanted, she has imagined one of the grimmest settings in the world—a dank and filthy death row in a corrupt prison—and given us one of the most beautiful, heartrending, and riveting novels I have ever read.”
— Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the TimeRene Denfeld is an award-winning author, journalist, and licensed private investigator. She is the author of several fiction and nonfiction books, and The Enchanted received the Prix du Premier Roman Étranger in France. Tje New York Times named her a 2017 hero of the year for her justice work. Her work on cognitively impaired parents for the New York Times Magazine is considered seminal in the field. She has written for many esteemed publications, including the New York Times Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Oregonian.
Jim Frangione is an actor and audiobook narrator who won AudioFile magazine’s 2011 Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense for his reading of Philip Carter’s The Altar of Bones and Spencer Quinn’s To Fetch a Thief. He has won numerous Earphones Awards and has been was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His theater credits include the off-Broadway production of Scrambled Eggs and the New York premiere of David Mamet’s plays The Old Neighborhood, Romance, and Oleanna, in which he also performed with the national tour. His film and television appearances include Joy, Transamerica, Spartan, Heist, Brotherhood, The Unit, and Law & Order.