Broken River

Broken River A Novel

The most inventive and entertaining novel to date from “a master of the dark arts” (Kelly Link) A modest house in upstate New York. One in the morning. Three people—a couple and their child—hurry out the door, but it’s too late for them. As the virtuosic and terrifying opening scene of Broken River unfolds, a spectral presence seems to be watching with cold and mysterious interest. Soon the house lies abandoned, and years later a new family moves in. Karl, Eleanor, and their daughter, Irina, arrive from New York City in the wake of Karl’s infidelity to start anew. Karl tries to stabilize his flailing art career. Eleanor, a successful commercial novelist, eagerly pivots in a new creative direction. Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Irina becomes obsessed with the brutal murders that occurred in the house years earlier. And, secretly, so does her mother. As the ensemble cast grows to include Louis, a hapless salesman in a carpet warehouse who is haunted by his past, and Sam, a young woman newly reunited with her jailbird brother, the seemingly unrelated crime that opened the story becomes ominously relevant. Hovering over all this activity looms a gradually awakening narrative consciousness that watches these characters lie to themselves and each other, unleashing forces that none of them could have anticipated and that put them in mortal danger. Broken River is a cinematic, darkly comic, and sui generis psychological thriller that could only have been written by J. Robert Lennon.
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Reviews

Photo of Kyle Curry
Kyle Curry@kcurry24
4 stars
Nov 22, 2023
Photo of Nadav Spiegelman
Nadav Spiegelman@nadavspi
5 stars
Sep 9, 2022
Photo of Claudia Scully
Claudia Scully@claudias217
3 stars
Jul 1, 2022
Photo of Barry Hess
Barry Hess@bjhess
4 stars
Jan 17, 2022
Photo of Ruby Huber
Ruby Huber@rubyread
3 stars
Nov 17, 2021