American Purgatorio
- 27 Apr 2006
- 9781841956985
- £12.99
- 256 pp
- 129×198mm
- 6 Aug 2009
- 9781847676627
- £10.39
- 256 pp
When a man emerges from a petrol station to find his wife and his car have mysteriously disappeared, the stage is set for one of the cleverest yarns in years, the literary equivalent of an American road movie, but with a twist in the tail that is both poignant and unexpected.
Wildly original, wonderful, amazing, tender, heart-breaking.
Geoff Dyer
When a man emerges from a petrol station to find his wife and his car have mysteriously disappeared, the stage is set for one of the cleverest yarns in years, the literary equivalent of an American road movie, but with a twist in the tail that is both poignant and unexpected.
Wildly original, wonderful, amazing, tender, heart-breaking.
Geoff Dyer
More about
the book
Jack’s wife has disappeared. She was in the car when they stopped for gas, he knows that much. He walked back from the counter, and then ?
Jack can’t remember. But Anne has gone.
John Haskell’s American Purgatorio is an extraordinary debut novel, haunting, comic and achingly poignant. It’s a road trip into the heart of a country and a man, a travelogue of loss and redemption, a Pilgrim’s Progress for a godless world.
More about
the book
Jack’s wife has disappeared. She was in the car when they stopped for gas, he knows that much. He walked back from the counter, and then …
Jack can’t remember. But Anne has gone.
John Haskell’s American Purgatorio is an extraordinary debut novel, haunting, comic and achingly poignant. It’s a road trip into the heart of a country and a man, a travelogue of loss and redemption, a Pilgrim’s Progress for a godless world.
...Haskell's book is a dazzling metaphysical high-wire act - compelling, deeply moving, mordantly funny and disquieting in equal measure.
I have just finished reading this wonderful book and feel like I am floating on blue air along the shoreline. It's a fresh, light, deep, sad, funny, moving, trippy dream of a novel. I loved the innocence of both the narrator - and his narrative voice - and the events of his journey, while the structure of the book is, though simple, so clever. John Haskell deals with profound matters - a journey through grief, a journey through death - in an entrancing way. It's a beautiful novel.
Tim Pears
...Haskell's book is a dazzling metaphysical high-wire act - compelling, deeply moving, mordantly funny and disquieting in equal measure.
I have just finished reading this wonderful book and feel like I am floating on blue air along the shoreline. It's a fresh, light, deep, sad, funny, moving, trippy dream of a novel. I loved the innocence of both the narrator - and his narrative voice - and the events of his journey, while the structure of the book is, though simple, so clever. John Haskell deals with profound matters - a journey through grief, a journey through death - in an entrancing way. It's a beautiful novel.
Tim Pears
John Haskell
View profileJohn Haskell is a former actor, playwright and performance artist who has worked in Chicago and New York. He is the author of the novel American Purgatorio and an acclaimed collection of short stories, I Am Not Jackson Pollock.
For more information, visit johnhaskell.home.mindspring.com/ index.html.
John Haskell
View profileJohn Haskell is a former actor, playwright and performance artist who has worked in Chicago and New York. He is the author of the novel American Purgatorio and an acclaimed collection of short stories, I Am Not Jackson Pollock.
