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“[A] pitch-black, decades-spanning family saga.”
— Entertainment Weekly
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“A big, broad, engagingly overstuffed new novel set with rousing confidence in midcentury Texas…Like much of Burke’s fiction, it’s saturated with the romance of the past while mournfully attuned to the unholy menace of the present…The novel is also full of prose as strong and precise as Hershel Pine’s pipeline welds…And then there’s Burke’s sense of place, which is so richly interwoven with his sense of history.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“Burke’s last three novels, Light of the World, Creole Belle, and Feast Day of Fools, were arguably his best. Wayfaring Stranger joins them as one of his most powerful and ambitious novels to date.”
— Associated Press
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“A historical
novel, a thriller, a romance, and an
irresistible read.”
— Tampa Bay Tribune
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“The story of one man’s struggle to live with integrity in postwar America. Burke, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series, writes with great assurance and wisdom, as well as a kind of bitter nostalgia for lost innocence.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Similar in sweep to Edna Ferber’s Giant, this intricately plotted novel
is recommended to readers interested in dramatic renderings of the
societal changes of postwar America.”
— Library Journal
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“An ambitious, deeply satisfying historical thriller…The wartime scenes showcase Burke at his best—vivid, finely wrought, highly evocative writing…A wonderful slice of midcentury American life overlaid with the roiling drama of individual lives as only Burke can portray them.”
— Booklist (starred review)
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“The postwar setting allows Burke to dramatize the uncertain early days of big oil, but the characters, their volcanic conflicts and their implacable demons will be instantly recognizable to Burke’s many fans. Instead of focusing on the wages of long-ago sin, as he generally does, Burke shows the sins actually being committed over several fraught years in the nation’s history. The result is a new spaciousness married to his fine-tuned sense of retribution.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“Will Patton’s narration of Burke’s novel is notable
for its energy…Holland is a complex character
listeners won’t want to miss, and Patton’s Texas accents are superb…All the major characters in the story—including Rosita and Holland’s former commander—have demons that Patton ably brings out. This book and
Patton’s reading are outstanding.”
— AudioFile
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“Burke is, for me, one of the great American
novelists—in any genre. In more than thirty novels over
four decades, he has demonstrated repeatedly that he is a supreme storyteller
and among the finest writers of contemporary prose.”
— Daily Mail (London), praise for the author