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Summary
Summary
An Entertainment Weekly "Must Read" * One of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year"
"Twisty and told from multiple perspectives, this meaty thriller races to a satisfying finish." -- People magazine
"The intensity of the storytelling is exhilarating and unsettling." -- Booklist (starred review)
Twenty-six years ago Hannah had her eye shot out. Now she wants justice. But is she blind to the truth?
Christopher J. Yates's cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates's new book does not disappoint. Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends--Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah--are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again--with even more devastating results.
Author Notes
CHRISTOPHER J. YATES was born and raised in Kent and studied law at Oxford University before working as a puzzle editor in London. He lives in New York City with his wife and dog. His first book, Black Chalk , was an NPR "Best of the Year" selection.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Yates follows his well-received debut, Black Chalk, with an edgy, intelligent thriller that explores the aftermath of a senseless crime. In 1982, 13-year-old Matthew Weaver ties Hannah Jensen, who's also 13, to a tree in the woods outside Roseborn, N.Y., and shoots her with a BB gun 49 times, including through the eye. Patrick "Patch" McConnell, a friend of Matthew's, is walking nearby and hears the shots. When Patch arrives at the scene, he at first thinks Hannah is dead, but she survives her injuries. Flash forward to 2008, when all three are living in New York City. Hannah, now a crime reporter, is married to Patch, who puts all his energies into his food blog and fantasizing about getting even with the boss who recently laid him off. A chance meeting with Matthew brings to the surface the anger and violence each has repressed. The reader's sympathies shift as each character brings a different perspective to the events that shaped them. Unexpected twists keep the tension high. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A defining moment of violence inextricably links the lives of three young adults in Yates' (Black Chalk, 2015) psychological thriller."I remember the gunshots made a wet sort of sound, phssh phssh phssh, and each time he hit her she screamed. Do the math and the whole thing probably went on for as long as 10 minutes. I just stood there and watched." Yates' novel begins with this visceral description that immediately establishes a complex relationship not only between Patrick, the narrator of these lines, and Matthew, his friend and the perpetrator, but also between memory and the truth. The novel cuts between a first-person narrative of Patrick at 12, documenting the events that led up to this shocking BB gun attack, and a third-person narrative of Patrick and his wife, Hannah, in 2008. As newlyweds, they are trying to find their way through the economic collapse and Patrick's loss of his job; Hannah is a reporter interested in writing a true-crime book. She is also the victim of the earlier crime, and while she knows about Patrick's connection to Matthew, she has no idea that he actually witnessed what happened and failed to stop it. Much of the book explores the ways in which they individually struggle to come to terms with and exorcise guilt before the past can destroy their present and future happiness. If this sounds complicated, it ishumanly complicated and narratively complicatedbut successfully and movingly so. Yates manages to take a brutal incident and, by the end, create understanding for all three major characters involved: the victim, the perpetrator, and the witness. By doing so, he drives home the messages that truth is always subjective and that true, compassionate love is always redemptive. It's the compassion part, he argues, at which most of us tend to fail.Mesmerizing and impossible to put down, this novel demands full attention, full empathy, and full responsibility; in return it offers poignant insight into human fragility and resilience. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* An antihero in an Albert Camus novel ignored a dying child's plea for help and spent the rest of his days pounded by guilt. Toward the end, he cried out to the little girl to come back and give me a chance to save both of us. That's the entire point of this haunting, beautiful, and demanding novel. Patrick, barely into adolescence, stands by while his friend Matthew tortures young Hannah, eventually putting out her eye with BB pellets. Her eye socket, Patrick observes, looked like it was housing a dark smashed plum. The rest of the novel is about the aftereffects of these grim few pages. Matthew becomes a wealthy investor, and Hannah becomes a newspaper reporter. Patrick, still trying to explain away why he did nothing to help Hannah, lives in a half-world of jobs that don't quite happen. Inevitably, the three reconnect almost three decades later, and the unfinished business has its final and bloody working out. And Patrick finally has a chance to save both of them. The intensity of the storytelling is exhilarating and unsettling.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, by Tayari Jones. (Algonquin, $16.95.) The lives of a young black couple in Atlanta are thrown into chaos after the husband, Roy, is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. As the couple grapple with their grief, they must also confront the failed hopes of a marriage and romantic love. The grave miscarriage of justice forms the core of Jones's deeply compassionate and heartbreaking novel. HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. (Broadway, $15.) Think beyond the coups d'état: The backslide from democracy into autocracy can be brought about by elected officials who upend the processes that empowered them. The authors, political scientists at Harvard, describe four criteria to identify authoritarian leaders. Donald Trump has met all of them. GRIST MILL ROAD, by Christopher J. Yates. (Picador, $18.) A gruesome act of violence connects three teenagers, who stay linked to one another for the rest of their lives. As more is revealed about the crime, this thriller raises questions of guilt, culpability and forgiveness. As our reviewer, Sarah Lyall, put it, "You have to work hard to follow the winding road Yates sends us down, and the drive is full of pleasantly unpleasant surprises." NO TIME TO SPARE: Thinking About What Matters, by Ursula K. Le Guin. (Mariner, $14.99.) Long revered as a master of fantasy writing, Le Guin turned to blogging late in life, writing about everything from feminism to aging to breakfast. This collection brings together some of her best blog posts. There's a lot that will delight fans of Le Guin, who died last year: "The pages sparkle with lines that make a reader glance up, searching for an available ear with which to share them," our reviewer, Melissa Febos, wrote. TEXT ME WHEN YOU GET HOME: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship, by Kayleen Schaefer. (Dutton, $16.) For generations, the importance of these relationships has been played down, taking a back seat to romantic partnerships and family bonds. Drawing on the evolution of female friendships in popular culture and her own experiences, Schaefer puts camaraderie among women on a pedestal. THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS, by Ben Dolnick. (Vintage, $16.) Facing career burnout and a stalled relationship, a young couple leave New York City for Hibernia, a tiny town upstate. As they settle into their new home, a historic house with a secret dark past, their romance becomes a ghost story: The relationship soon begins to unravel, and it's not clear whether psychosis or malevolent spiritual forces are to blame.
Library Journal Review
A teenage girl is tied to a tree and shot with a BB gun over and over again, irrevocably damaging the lives of the perpetrator, the victim, and the person who stood by in fear. Years later, the three still struggle to keep the pieces of their lives together. Told in a combination of first-person letters, portions of a manuscript, and third-person depictions, the story slowly reveals events leading up to, surrounding, and influenced by the incident. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations of events, and complex motivations abound in the half-truths the characters tell themselves and others. A nonlinear structure adeptly adds suspense to this complicated foray into the volatile emotional states of -characters who either continue to live in the past, use the past as a fulcrum, or simply move forward without facing their history. A talented cast of readers including Dan Bittner, Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, and Will Damron help listeners differentiate between the changing points of view and time periods. VERDICT Even in a plethora of audiobooks that deviate from the traditional linear plot presentation, this title stands out for its honest and unflinching look at people, their fears, and their recurring mistakes. ["This fast-paced, suspenseful journey through the minds of these characters will fascinate Donna Tartt fans and readers who enjoy twisty, intellectual thrillers and unreliable narration": LJ 11/1/17 review of the Picador hc.]-Lisa Youngblood, Harker Heights P.L., TX © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.