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an intense and intriguingly unconventional love story
Houghton Mifflin
February 2007
On Sale: February 8, 2007
208 pages
ISBN: 0618735410
EAN: 9780618735419
Hardcover
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Fiction
Fans of Howard Norman, the internationally acclaimed author
of The Hunting of L and The Bird Artist and a two-time
National Book Award finalist, will find in his latest novel
-- an intense and intriguingly unconventional love story --
all the hallmarks of this masterly writer: sparkling yet
spare language, a totally compelling air of mystery spread
over our workaday world, and ability to capture the
metaphorical heartbeat at the center of our
lives.
Like many of Howard Norman's celebrated
novels, Devotion begins with an announcement of a crime: on
August 19, 1985, David Kozol and his father-in-law engaged
in "assault by mutual affray." Norman sets out to explore a
great mystery: why seemingly quiet, contained people lose
control. David and Maggie's story seemed straightforward
enough; they met in a hotel lobby in London. For David, the
simple fact was love at first sight. For Maggie, the
attraction was similarly sudden and unprecedented in
intensity. Their love affair, "A fugue state of amorous
devotion," turned into a whirlwind romance and marriage. So
what could possibly enrage David enough that he would strike
at the father of his new bride? Why would William, a gentle
man who looks after an estate -- and its flock of swans --
in Nova Scotia, be so angry at the man who has just married
his beloved only child, Maggie? And what would lead Maggie
to believe that David has been unfaithful to her? In his
signature style -- haunting and evocative -- Norman lays
bare the inventive stupidities people are capable of when
wounded and confused.
At its core, Devotion is an
elegantly constructed, never sentimental examination of
love: romantic love (and its flip side, hate), filial love
at its most tender, and, of course, love for the vast open
spaces of Nova Scotia.
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