Forest Dark

 Forest Dark

Reviewed By  Ian Banks       February 5, 2018

 

Author  Nicole Krauss

Distributor:      Bloomsbury
ISBN:                 9781408871782
Publisher:         Bloomsbury
Release Date:   September 2017  

   Website:   https://www.bloomsbury.com/au

FaceBook:    

YouTube:   

Instagram:   

X Formally Twitter:    

When a man simply gets up and leaves his life behind, heading for Tel Aviv, arriving at the Hilton, he is looking for a new concept in life, or on his life in particular, which sets off a train of events that proves both profound and refreshing.

A briefcase found in the middle of the desert, monogramed but with no trace of the owner is indicative of man in crisis, a man trying to find the core essence of a life he has built for himself; that of a successful lawyer, husband and father.

A woman leaves her family in Brooklyn and arrives at the same hotel in Tel Aviv in the hope that returning to the place of her childhood, a place filled with family memories, may  release the writer’s block she has being plagued with for some time. She is a successful writer facing more challenges within her family that she cares to admit.

When she is recruited by a man saying he is a Professor of Literature and he needs her help, she agrees without realising what it is she has signed up for, discovering almost too late that the journey she so willingly agreed to be a part of, will have a profound and lasting effects on her life in a manner she would never, ever have expected.

Deep and movingly haunting, this is a tale of self-discovery taken to the nth degree as acclaimed author Nicole Krauss addresses the frailty of the human spirit and the fine line we all walk as we travel through life. Carefully structured and beautifully written, and in many, many ways confrontational, the story of two people caught in what is an almost Kafkaesque situation, where reality blurs into bizarre or nightmarish situations, is reflective of a time when certain choices in personal decision making is not always easy and can often have unexpected outcomes.

If you enjoy post-modernist writing, in the sense of a differing style to modern day writing, a scenario of ’what if’ and a reflection of life, where you a can stand to one side and perhaps see yourself reflected in the writing, this is a novel you will absolutely enjoy.

Fiction