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Synopsis A West Virginia Girl Guides camp in 1963 is the setting for Jayne Anne Phillips's exploration of primitive evil. Two sisters, Lenny and Alma, are separated in different tents. Alma is upset about their mother, while Lenny is concerned with her best friend, Cap, who has been abandoned by her own mother. Buddy, the wide-eyed eight year old son of the camp's cook, has been sexually abused. Lastly, there's Parson, Buddy's father Carmody's former cellmate who wants to destroy him. Phillips switches from one subjective viewpoint to the next in this visceral nightmare.
| Size | | Length: | 279 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 21.6 oz |
Industry Reviews "A beautiful, intricate, abundantly mature new novel...mysterious, full of dark dreams, menace, and the blind tug of sex...The danger is subtle and pervasive and Phillips builds the suspense relentlessly. At the same time she asks (implicitly) questions that have no answer: can we protect each other? Where do we find shelter?" Adam Begley
"Written in prose that is often breathtakingly beautiful, 'Shelter' is a rich, vivid novel of moral and psychological complexity destined to stand alongside works by Faulkner and other masters of Southern literature." Frank Conroy
"Ever an astute chronicler of American preoccupations, Ms. Phillips has again put her finger on the collective (and racing) pulse. Much of the incest taboo has served as a marker of social health, now an incest totem has emerged as a symptom of communal decay." New York Times Book Review - Ann Hulbert
"Hair-raising novel from a high-wire stylist...a glorious and disturbing book." Buckley
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