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Subjects > Fiction themes > Human qualities & behavior > Memory
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Subjects > Fiction themes > Medicine & health > Alzheimer's
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About This Book:

Title: The Wilderness

Other Available Formats:
Hardcover, 2009

Synopsis
In Samantha Harvey's hypnotic and intentionally disorienting first novel, Jake, a man sliding into the abyss of Alzheimer's disease, struggles to remember the facts of his life, desperate to remember the reasons for his mother's and wife's deaths and why his son is in prison. Like a mystery unfolding backwards, THE WILDERNESS moves from a state of fragile clarity into the agony of confusion. Though a formally difficult work, especially in the later sections, THE WILDERNESS, which was nominated for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, is an ingenious and troubling concept that is wonderfully executed--Jake's pain is powerfully felt.

Details
Language:        English

Size
Length:        384 Pages



Industry Reviews
"THE WILDERNESS is Samantha Harvey's first novel, but it feels like a mature work..."
(02/01/2009)
"While most books about Alzheimer's are written from the outside looking in, this one stays within the ever-narrowing parameters of Jacob's mind."
(02/15/2009)
"THE WILDERNESS bills itself as a novel about a man who's losing his mind to Alzheimer's, but it's far more...than that. It's closer to Virginia Woolf's meditative novels than anything else I can think of."
(02/20/2009)
"When describing Jake's confusion, Samantha Harvey uses her precise and unostentatious style to full effect....[Jake's] struggle becomes as oppressive to the reader as it is to [him], and absolution comes only when...he finally loses his mind completely..."
(05/01/2009)
"Samantha Harvey's debut novel is a brave and intelligent crafting of narrative around narrative's ruins in the mind of a sufferer from Alzheimer's Disease. Without memory, self and story crumble, though for a while the losses made by the shrivelling brain can be circumvented. Harvey submerges the reader in a literary unfolding of dementia."
(02/27/2009)


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Book Details Summary: The title of this book is The Wilderness and it was written by Samantha Harvey. This edition of The Wilderness is in a Paperback format. This books publish date is April 2010 and it has a suggested retail price of $15. There are 384 pages in the book and it was published by Anchor Books. The 10 digit ISBN is 0307454770 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9780307454775. For the most current lowest price, Click Here.