| The Anarchist | | --Ron Charles, editor, Washington Post Book World "Have you ever cut yourself on a piece of glass without realizing it? Just like that, Smolens slides through gruesome episodes in such muted, unadorned prose that you barely realize what's happened until you see the blood. The genius of this novel is the tension he creates by moving quickly from quiet, moving scenes in the president's sickroom or Czolgosz's prison cell to raw, startling flashes of violence during the criminal investigation. As the country burns with paranoia, anarchists, socialists and communists are rounded up, beaten and detained, while Norris and Hyde race to catch a conspirator who may kill them first. It's an enthralling descent into the dark byways of the criminal mind..." |
The Anarchist is an "intense, moody, and engrossing novel...this is a well-written novel that works as both a political thriller and as a depiction of a tulmultuous era in our history." Booklist, 12/1/09 "Carefully crafted prose whose quiet authority is bolstered by a firm grasp of period detail. A character-driven historical novel that transcends genre and provides a fascinating perspective on the current spate of populist discontent with Washington." Kirkus Reviews, 11/1/09 "Fiction so shapely and finely wrought: dark history inexorably bound to repeat itself -- The Anarchist is another gem from a master of the storyteller's arts." – National Book Award finalist Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking "John Smolens has written a historical novel with the quick-beating heart of a thriller. Written in crisp, cinematic prose, The Anarchist has echoes of the best noir, while at the same time invoking a terrifyingly empathetic portrait of the young assassin Leon Czolgosz, who, in Smolens’ hands, has a kind of Dostoyevskian complexity. Before reading this book, the McKinley assassination existed in my mind as only a dry fact. The Anarchist has brought these events to rich, bloody, teeming life. " --Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply "If you have ever been fascinated by the name and deed of one Leon Czolgosz, John Smolens’s The Anarchist will be a good friend to you. If you have never heard of the name and deed of one Leon Czolgosz, John Smolens’s The Anarchist will likely be a revelation. With his portrait of a bygone America both out for blood and at its own throat, Smolens has written an intelligent, often troubling warning disguised as a first-rate thriller, as though Sinclair Lewis has fused with Alan Furst.” – Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things UPCOMING EVENTS: Reading & Signing: Kerrytown Bookfest, Sunday, September 12, Ann Arbor: John will participate in a panel discussion regarding historical fiction at 3 p.m. For more in formation, go to: www.kerrytownbookfest.org "If you have ever been fascinated by the name and deed of one Leon Czolgosz, John Smolens's The Anarchist will be a good friend to you. If you have never heard of the name and deed of one Leon Czolgosz, John Smolens's The Anarchist will likely be a revelation. With his portrait of a bygone America both out for blood and at its own throat, Smolens has written an intelligent, often troubling warning disguised as a first-rate thriller, as though Sinclair Lewis has fused with Alan Furst." --Tom Bissell, author of Father of All Things, God Lives in St. Petersburg, and Chasing the Sea John Smolens' previous three novels were also published by Shaye Areheart Books: Fire Point (2004), The Invisible World (2002) and Cold (2001). All three books were published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton, and translations have appeared in the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, and Turkey. His earlier works of fiction include a collection of short stories published by Carnegie Mellon University, My One and Only Bomb Shelter (2000), and two novels, Angel’s Head (1994) and Winter by Degrees (1988). His short stories and essays have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including: the Virginia Quarterly, the William and Mary Review, the Columbia Journal, the Massachusetts Review, Yankee, Redbook, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. “John Smolens is that rare and gifted writer who can capture both our exterior and interior worlds with equal dexterity, grace, and power. Cold is a novel so riveting you will absolutely not be able to put it down, and these characters will stay with you long after turning the last page.”
-- Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog “Cold is a finely crafted, wild yarn set in the great north. John Smolens gives us a suspenseful tale in a style somewhere between Jack London and Raymond Chandler. A fine read.”
-- Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall and Dalva “A mesmerizing danse macabre, one that welds the drama of family treachery to an unforgiving landscape…Imagine James M. Cain rewriting the script of the film Fargo and you get close to the novel’s palpable mixture of bleak wilderness and blood-hot passion. Hot stuff, stripped bare with ice and fire.”
-- The London Sunday Express “Smolens’ skill [is] in rendering scenes of stunning brutality and uncommon tenderness.”
-- Publishers’ Weekly |
