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Port-Wine Stain by Norman Lock (2016, Trade Paperback)

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Format: Paperback or Softback. Item Availability. Your source for quality books at reduced prices. Condition Guide. Publication Date: 6/14/2016.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherBellevue Literary Press

ISBN-101942658060

ISBN-139781942658061

eBay Product ID (ePID)219215295

Product Key Features

Book TitlePort-Wine Stain

Number of Pages224 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicHorror, Gothic, Biographical

Publication Year2016

GenreFiction

AuthorNorman Lock

Book SeriesThe American Novels Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in

Item Weight7.4 Oz

Item Length7.5 in

Item Width5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2015-030706

TitleLeadingThe

ReviewsAdvance Praise for The Port-Wine Stain "This chilling and layered story of obsession succeeds both as a moody period piece and as an effective and memorable homage to the works of Edgar Allan Poe." -- Kirkus Reviews "As lyrical and alluring as Poe's own original work, The Port-Wine Stain captures the magic, mystery, and madness of the great American author while weaving an eerie and original tale in homage to him." -- Foreword Reviews Praise for Norman Lock & the American Novels series "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain's spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock's books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal "Sheds brilliant light along the meteoric path of American westward expansion. . . . [A] pithy, compact beautifully conducted version of the American Dream." -- ALAN CHEUSE, NPR on American Meteor "Make[s] Huck and Jim so real you expect to get messages from them on your iPhone." -- SCOTT SIMON, NPR Weekend Edition on The Boy in His Winter "[Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- JANE CIABATTARI, NPR "One of the most interesting writers out there." -- Reader's Digest "A master of the unusual." -- Slice magazine "One could spend forever worming through [Lock's] magicked words, their worlds." -- Believer "[Lock's writing] lives up to Whitman's words . . . no other writer, in recent memory, dares the reader to believe there is a hand reaching out to be held, a hand to hold onto us." -- Detroit Metro Times "Lock is a rapturous storyteller, and his tales are never less than engrossing." -- Kenyon Review "One of our country's unsung treasures." -- Green Mountains Review "Our finest modern fabulist." -- Bookslut "A master storyteller." -- Largehearted Boy "[A] contemporary master of the form [and] virtuosic fabulist." -- Flavorwire "[Lock's] window onto fiction [is] a welcome one: at once referential and playful, occupying a similar post-Borges space to . . . Stephen Millhauser and Neil Gaiman." -- Vol. 1 Brooklyn "[Lock] is not engaged in either homage or pastiche but in an intense dialogue with a number of past writers about the process of writing, and the nature of fiction itself." -- Weird Fiction "Lock's work mines the stuff of dreams." -- Rumpus "You can feel the joy leaping off the page." -- Full Stop "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth." -- Shelf Awareness "Lock plays profound tricks, with language--his is crystalline and underline-worthy." -- Publishers Weekly "[Lock] writes beautifully, with many subtle, complex insights." -- Booklist "[Lock] successfully blends beautiful language reminiscent of 19th-century prose with cynicism and bald, ugly truth." -- Library Journal "Lock's stories stir time as though it were a soup . . . beyond the entertainment lie 21st-century conundrums: What really exists? Are we each, ultimately, alone and lonely? Where is technology taking humankind?" -- Kirkus Reviews "All hail Lock, whose narrative soul sings fairy tales, whose language is glass." -- KATE BERNHEIMER , editor of xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , and Fairy Tale Review "[Lock] has an impressive ability to create a unique and original world." -- BRIAN EVENSON , author of Immobility and A Collapse of Horses "Lock is one of our great miniaturists, to be read only a single time at one's peril." -- TIM HORVATH , author of Understories, Advance Praise for The Port-Wine Stain "As lyrical and alluring as Poe's own original work, The Port-Wine Stain captures the magic, mystery, and madness of the great American author while weaving an eerie and original tale in homage to him." -- Foreword Reviews Praise for Norman Lock & the American Novels series "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain's spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock's books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal "Sheds brilliant light along the meteoric path of American westward expansion. . . . [A] pithy, compact beautifully conducted version of the American Dream." -- ALAN CHEUSE, NPR on American Meteor "Make[s] Huck and Jim so real you expect to get messages from them on your iPhone." -- SCOTT SIMON, NPR Weekend Edition on The Boy in His Winter "[Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- JANE CIABATTARI, NPR "One of the most interesting writers out there." -- Reader's Digest "A master of the unusual." -- Slice magazine "One could spend forever worming through [Lock's] magicked words, their worlds." -- Believer "[Lock's writing] lives up to Whitman's words . . . no other writer, in recent memory, dares the reader to believe there is a hand reaching out to be held, a hand to hold onto us." -- Detroit Metro Times "Lock is a rapturous storyteller, and his tales are never less than engrossing." -- Kenyon Review "One of our country's unsung treasures." -- Green Mountains Review "Our finest modern fabulist." -- Bookslut "A master storyteller." -- Largehearted Boy "[A] contemporary master of the form [and] virtuosic fabulist." -- Flavorwire "[Lock's] window onto fiction [is] a welcome one: at once referential and playful, occupying a similar post-Borges space to . . . Stephen Millhauser and Neil Gaiman." -- Vol. 1 Brooklyn "[Lock] is not engaged in either homage or pastiche but in an intense dialogue with a number of past writers about the process of writing, and the nature of fiction itself." -- Weird Fiction "Lock's work mines the stuff of dreams." -- Rumpus "You can feel the joy leaping off the page." -- Full Stop "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth." -- Shelf Awareness "Lock plays profound tricks, with language--his is crystalline and underline-worthy." -- Publishers Weekly "[Lock] writes beautifully, with many subtle, complex insights." -- Booklist "[Lock] successfully blends beautiful language reminiscent of 19th-century prose with cynicism and bald, ugly truth." -- Library Journal "Lock's stories stir time as though it were a soup . . . beyond the entertainment lie 21st-century conundrums: What really exists? Are we each, ultimately, alone and lonely? Where is technology taking humankind?" -- Kirkus Reviews "All hail Lock, whose narrative soul sings fairy tales, whose language is glass." -- KATE BERNHEIMER , editor of xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , and Fairy Tale Review "[Lock] has an impressive ability to create a unique and original world." -- BRIAN EVENSON , author of Immobility and A Collapse of Horses "Lock is one of our great miniaturists, to be read only a single time at one's peril." -- TIM HORVATH , author of Understories, Praise for Norman Lock & the American Novels series "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain's spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock's books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal "Sheds brilliant light along the meteoric path of American westward expansion. . . . [A] pithy, compact beautifully conducted version of the American Dream." -- ALAN CHEUSE, NPR on American Meteor "Make[s] Huck and Jim so real you expect to get messages from them on your iPhone." -- SCOTT SIMON, NPR Weekend Edition on The Boy in His Winter "[Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- JANE CIABATTARI, NPR "One of the most interesting writers out there." -- Reader's Digest "A master of the unusual." -- Slice magazine "One could spend forever worming through [Lock's] magicked words, their worlds." -- Believer "[Lock's writing] lives up to Whitman's words . . . no other writer, in recent memory, dares the reader to believe there is a hand reaching out to be held, a hand to hold onto us." -- Detroit Metro Times "Lock is a rapturous storyteller, and his tales are never less than engrossing." -- Kenyon Review "One of our country's unsung treasures." -- Green Mountains Review "Our finest modern fabulist." -- Bookslut "A master storyteller." -- Largehearted Boy "[A] contemporary master of the form [and] virtuosic fabulist." -- Flavorwire "[Lock's] window onto fiction [is] a welcome one: at once referential and playful, occupying a similar post-Borges space to . . . Stephen Millhauser and Neil Gaiman." -- Vol. 1 Brooklyn "[Lock] is not engaged in either homage or pastiche but in an intense dialogue with a number of past writers about the process of writing, and the nature of fiction itself." -- Weird Fiction "Lock's work mines the stuff of dreams." -- Rumpus "You can feel the joy leaping off the page." -- Full Stop "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth." -- Shelf Awareness "Lock plays profound tricks, with language--his is crystalline and underline-worthy." -- Publishers Weekly "[Lock] writes beautifully, with many subtle, complex insights." -- Booklist "[Lock] successfully blends beautiful language reminiscent of 19th-century prose with cynicism and bald, ugly truth." -- Library Journal "Lock's stories stir time as though it were a soup . . . beyond the entertainment lie 21st-century conundrums: What really exists? Are we each, ultimately, alone and lonely? Where is technology taking humankind?" -- Kirkus Reviews "All hail Lock, whose narrative soul sings fairy tales, whose language is glass." -- KATE BERNHEIMER , editor of xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , and Fairy Tale Review "[Lock] has an impressive ability to create a unique and original world." -- BRIAN EVENSON , author of Immobility and A Collapse of Horses "Lock is one of our great miniaturists, to be read only a single time at one's peril." -- TIM HORVATH , author of Understories, Select Praise for Norman Lock''s The American Novels Series "Shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR "Our national history and literature are Norman Lock''s playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . . [His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character." -- Washington Post "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth . . . to create something entirely new--an American fable of ideas." -- Shelf Awareness On The Boy in His Winter "Brilliant. . . . The Boy in His Winter is a glorious meditation on justice, truth, loyalty, story, and the alchemical effects of love, a reminder of our capacity to be changed by the continuously evolving world ''when it strikes fire against the mind''s flint,'' and by profoundly moving novels like this." -- NPR On American Meteor "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain''s spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock''s books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal On The Port-Wine Stain "Lock''s novel engages not merely with [Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter] but with decadent fin de siècle art and modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions about the metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. The reader is just as spellbound by Lock''s story as [his novel''s narrator] is by Poe''s. . . . Echoes of Wilde''s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freud''s theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction." -- New York Times Book Review On A Fugitive in Walden Woods " A Fugitive in Walden Woods manages that special magic of making Thoreau''s time in Walden Woods seem fresh and surprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptive novel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect the United States to this day." -- Victor LaValle , author of The Ballad of Black Tom and The Changeling On The Wreckage of Eden "The lively passages of Emily [Dickinson''s]''s letters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robert finds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moral hypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid of the ugliness of the time, Lock''s thought-provoking series continues to impress." -- Publishers Weekly On Feast Day of the Cannibals "Lock does not merely imitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbal flourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville." -- Gay & Lesbian Review On American Follies " Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists, misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bear resemblance to the contemporary United States." -- Library Journal (starred review) On Tooth of the Covenant "Splendid. . . . Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century [Nathaniel] Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous." -- Foreword Reviews (starred review), SelectPraise for Norman Lock''s The American NovelsSeries "Shimmers with gloriouslanguage, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR "Our national history and literatureare Norman Lock''s playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . .[His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of theAmerican spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionateengagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character."-- Washington Post "Lockwrites some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporaryfiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references,profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, andthe nature of truth . . . to create something entirely new--an American fable ofideas." -- Shelf Awareness "[A]consistently excellent series. . . . Lock has an impressive ear for themusicality of language, and his characteristic lush prose brings vitality andpoetic authenticity to the dialogue." -- Booklist On The Boy in His Winter "[Lock]is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he re-imaginesHuck Finn''s journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into America''spast--and future."-- Reader''s Digest On American Meteor "[Walt Whitman]hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain''s spiritpervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock''sbooks, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page likedesperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall StreetJournal On ThePort-Wine Stain "Lock''s novel engages not merely with[Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter] but with decadent fin de siècle artand modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions aboutthe metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. Thereader is just as spellbound by Lock''s story as [his novel''s narrator] is byPoe''s. . . . Echoes of Wilde''s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freud''s theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richlylayered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction." -- NewYork Times Book Review On A Fugitive in Walden Woods " A Fugitive in Walden Woods managesthat special magic of making Thoreau''s time in Walden Woods seem fresh andsurprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptivenovel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect theUnited States to this day." -- Victor LaValle , author of The Ballad of BlackTom and The Changeling On The Wreckageof Eden "The lively passages of Emily [Dickinson''s]''sletters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robertfinds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moralhypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid ofthe ugliness of the time, Lock''s thought-provoking series continues toimpress." -- PublishersWeekly On Feast Day ofthe Cannibals "Lock does not merelyimitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbalflourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville." -- Gay & LesbianReview On American Follies " Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists,misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bearresemblance to the contemporary United States." -- LibraryJournal (starred review) On Tooth of the Covenant "Splendid. . . .Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century [Nathaniel] Hawthorne andhis fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. Thehistorical details are immersive and meticulous." -- ForewordReviews (starred review), Select Praise for Norman Lock''s The American Novels Series "Shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR "Our national history and literature are Norman Lock''s playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . . [His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character." -- Washington Post "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth . . . to create something entirely new--an American fable of ideas." -- Shelf Awareness "[A] consistently excellent series. . . . Lock has an impressive ear for the musicality of language, and his characteristic lush prose brings vitality and poetic authenticity to the dialogue." -- Booklist On The Boy in His Winter "[Lock] is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he re-imagines Huck Finn''s journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into America''s past--and future." -- Reader''s Digest On American Meteor "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain''s spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock''s books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal On The Port-Wine Stain "Lock''s novel engages not merely with [Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter] but with decadent fin de siècle art and modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions about the metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. The reader is just as spellbound by Lock''s story as [his novel''s narrator] is by Poe''s. . . . Echoes of Wilde''s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freud''s theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction." -- New York Times Book Review On A Fugitive in Walden Woods " A Fugitive in Walden Woods manages that special magic of making Thoreau''s time in Walden Woods seem fresh and surprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptive novel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect the United States to this day." -- Victor LaValle , author of The Ballad of Black Tom and The Changeling On The Wreckage of Eden "The lively passages of Emily [Dickinson''s]''s letters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robert finds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moral hypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid of the ugliness of the time, Lock''s thought-provoking series continues to impress." -- Publishers Weekly On Feast Day of the Cannibals "Lock does not merely imitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbal flourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville." -- Gay & Lesbian Review On American Follies " Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists, misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bear resemblance to the contemporary United States." -- Library Journal (starred review) On Tooth of the Covenant "Splendid. . . . Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century [Nathaniel] Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous." -- Foreword Reviews (starred review), Select Praise for Norman Lock''s The American Novels Series "Shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR "Our national history and literature are Norman Lock''s playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . . [His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character." -- Washington Post "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth . . . to create something entirely new--an American fable of ideas." -- Shelf Awareness "[A] consistently excellent series. . . . Lock has an impressive ear for the musicality of language, and his characteristic lush prose brings vitality and poetic authenticity to the dialogue." -- Booklist On The Boy in His Winter "[Lock] is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he re-imagines Huck Finn''s journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into America''s past--and future." -- Reader''s Digest On American Meteor "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain''s spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock''s books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal On The Port-Wine Stain "Lock''s novel engages not merely with [Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter] but with decadent fin de siècle art and modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions about the metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. The reader is just as spellbound by Lock''s story as [his novel''s narrator] is by Poe''s. . . . Echoes of Wilde''s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freud''s theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction." -- New York Times Book Review On A Fugitive in Walden Woods " A Fugitive in Walden Woods manages that special magic of making Thoreau''s time in Walden Woods seem fresh and surprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptive novel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect the United States to this day." -- Victor LaValle , author of The Ballad of Black Tom and The Changeling On The Wreckage of Eden "The lively passages of Emily [Dickinson''s]''s letters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robert finds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moral hypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid of the ugliness of the time, Lock''s thought-provoking series continues to impress." -- Publishers Weekly On Feast Day of the Cannibals "Lock does not merely imitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbal flourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville." -- Gay & Lesbian Review On American Follies " Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists, misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bear resemblance to the contemporary United States." -- Library Journal (starred review) On Tooth of the Covenant "Splendid. . . . Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century [Nathaniel] Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous." -- Foreword Reviews (starred review) On Voices in the Dead House "Gripping. . . . The legacy of John Brown looms over both Alcott and Whitman [in] a haunting novel that offers candid portraits of literary legends." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review), Advance Praise for The Port-Wine Stain Library Journal "Top Indie Spring Fiction" selection "An enthralling and believable picture of the descent into madness, told in chillingly beautiful prose that Poe might envy." -- Library Journal (starred review) "This chilling and layered story of obsession succeeds both as a moody period piece and as an effective and memorable homage to the works of Edgar Allan Poe." -- Kirkus Reviews "As lyrical and alluring as Poe's own original work, The Port-Wine Stain captures the magic, mystery, and madness of the great American author while weaving an eerie and original tale in homage to him." -- Foreword Reviews Praise for Norman Lock & the American Novels series "[Walt Whitman] hovers over [ American Meteor ], just as Mark Twain's spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter . . . . Like all Mr. Lock's books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield." -- Wall Street Journal "Sheds brilliant light along the meteoric path of American westward expansion. . . . [A] pithy, compact beautifully conducted version of the American Dream." -- ALAN CHEUSE, NPR on American Meteor "Make[s] Huck and Jim so real you expect to get messages from them on your iPhone." -- SCOTT SIMON, NPR Weekend Edition on The Boy in His Winter "[Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- JANE CIABATTARI, NPR "One of the most interesting writers out there." -- Reader's Digest "A master of the unusual." -- Slice magazine "One could spend forever worming through [Lock's] magicked words, their worlds." -- Believer "[Lock's writing] lives up to Whitman's words . . . no other writer, in recent memory, dares the reader to believe there is a hand reaching out to be held, a hand to hold onto us." -- Detroit Metro Times "Lock is a rapturous storyteller, and his tales are never less than engrossing." -- Kenyon Review "One of our country's unsung treasures." -- Green Mountains Review "Our finest modern fabulist." -- Bookslut "A master storyteller." -- Largehearted Boy "[A] contemporary master of the form [and] virtuosic fabulist." -- Flavorwire "[Lock's] window onto fiction [is] a welcome one: at once referential and playful, occupying a similar post-Borges space to . . . Stephen Millhauser and Neil Gaiman." -- Vol. 1 Brooklyn "[Lock] is not engaged in either homage or pastiche but in an intense dialogue with a number of past writers about the process of writing, and the nature of fiction itself." -- Weird Fiction "Lock's work mines the stuff of dreams." -- Rumpus "You can feel the joy leaping off the page." -- Full Stop "Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth." -- Shelf Awareness "Lock plays profound tricks, with language--his is crystalline and underline-worthy." -- Publishers Weekly "[Lock] writes beautifully, with many subtle, complex insights." -- Booklist "[Lock] successfully blends beautiful language reminiscent of 19th-century prose with cynicism and bald, ugly truth." -- Library Journal "Lock's stories stir time as though it were a soup . . . beyond the entertainment lie 21st-century conundrums: What really exists? Are we each, ultimately, alone and lonely? Where is technology taking humankind?" -- Kirkus Reviews "All hail Lock, whose narrative soul sings fairy tales, whose language is glass." -- KATE BERNHEIMER , editor of xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , and Fairy Tale Review "[Lock] has an impressive ability to create a unique and original world." -- BRIAN EVENSON , author of Immobility and A Collapse of Horses "Lock is one of our great miniaturists, to be read only a single time at one's peril." -- TIM HORVATH , author of Understories

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal813.6

SynopsisA young surgical assistant faces his doppelgänger in a chilling tale featuring Edgar Allan Poe and a "lost" Poe story. In his third stand-alone book of The American Novels series, Norman Lock recounts the story of a young Philadelphian, Edward Fenzil, who, in the winter of 1844, falls under the sway of two luminaries of the nineteenth-century grotesque imagination: Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgeon and collector of medical "curiosities," and Edgar Allan Poe. As Fenzil struggles against the powerful wills that would usurp his identity, including that of his own malevolent doppelgänger, he loses his mind and his story to another. The Port-Wine Stain is a gothic psychological thriller whose themes are possession, identity, and storytelling that the master, Edgar Allan Poe, might have been proud to call his own., " Norman Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR In his third stand-alone book of The American Novels series, Norman Lock recounts the story of a young Philadelphian, Edward Fenzil, who, in the winter of 1844, falls under the sway of two luminaries of the nineteenth-century grotesque imagination: Thomas Dent M tter, a surgeon and collector of medical "curiosities," and Edgar Allan Poe. As Fenzil struggles against the powerful wills that would usurp his identity, including that of his own malevolent doppelg nger, he loses his mind and his story to another. The Port-Wine Stain is a gothic psychological thriller whose themes are possession, identity, and storytelling that the master, Edgar Allan Poe, might have been proud to call his own. Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage, radio, and screenplays. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey, where he is at work on the next books of The American Novels series., "Mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered." -- New York Times Book Review "[Norman Lock's fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights." -- NPR In his third book of The American Novels series, Norman Lock recounts the story of a young Philadelphian, Edward Fenzil, who, in the winter of 1844, falls under the sway of two luminaries of the nineteenth-century grotesque imagination: Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgeon and collector of medical "curiosities," and Edgar Allan Poe. As Fenzil struggles against the powerful wills that would usurp his identity, including that of his own malevolent doppelgänger, he loses his mind and his story to another. Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage, radio, and screenplays. His recent works of fiction include the short story collection Love Among the Particles , a Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year, and three books in The American Novels series: The Boy in His Winter , a reenvisioning of Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that Scott Simon of NPR's Weekend Edition hailed for "make[ing] Huck and Jim so real you expect to get messages from them on your iPhone"; American Meteor , an homage to Walt Whitman and William Henry Jackson named a Firecracker Award finalist and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and The Port-Wine Stain , an homage to Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter. Lock lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey., A young surgical assistant faces his doppelgänger in a chilling tale featuring Edgar Allan Poe and a "lost" Poe story., A young surgical assistant faces his doppelgänger in a chilling tale featuring Edgar Allan Poe and a "lost" Poe story. In his third stand-alone book of The American Novels series, Norman Lock recounts the story of a young Philadelphian, Edward Fenzil, who, in the winter of 1844, falls under the sway of two luminaries of the nineteenth-century grotesque imagination: Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgeon and collector of medical "curiosities," and Edgar Allan Poe. As Fenzil struggles against the powerful wills that would usurp his identity, including that of his own malevolent doppelgänger, he loses his mind and his story to another. The Port-Wine Stain is a gothic psychological thriller whose themes are possession, identity, and storytelling that the master, Edgar Allan Poe, might have been proud to call his own. Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage and radio plays. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey, where he is at work on the next books of The American Novels series.

LC Classification NumberPS3562.O218P67 2016