There are plenty of books that we publish at Little, Brown that get us talking amongst ourselves - and sometimes arguing, persuading, theorising and even shouting. Now and again though a book comes along that really sets the cat among the pigeons, and currently the book we’re getting quite excited about is Day for Night by Frederick Reiken. Day for Night is about the degrees of separation between us that we ignore at our peril. It’s about secrets and time, and the hold of history on all of us. It’s a truly remarkable work that upsets everything you take for granted. To whet your appetite a little before the book is officially released on the 1st July, we are posting a fragment of each interlinked story in Day for Night every day on our blog, along with a question to get you thinking. We’ve had our discussion, now we want to know what you think, so send us your comments and reactions via email to info@littlebrown.co.uk or tweet to #dayfornight and we’ll post them on the site, or simply submit in the form below. The best ones win a FREE copy of the book. The first fragment is below, and remember to keep checking back as there will be a new one posted on the blog every day. Then on publication day, we’ll put up a list of further questions for those that have read the book in full and let the debate really kick-off... Fragment 1: Yesterday’s Day We walked out farther, to the water’s edge, where less than fifteen feet of river lay between us and the portion of the carousel that was visible. One of the manatees began moving, awkwardly sidling along the submerged roof until it reached water deep enough to swim. The creature’s movements suddenly turned graceful. The water rippled in its wake, seemed to fluoresce. And then it van¬ished, leaving its momentary, perfectly smooth footprint on the surface. I stood there feeling the small weight of the wonder stone. I thought of Jordan and it struck me that this part of his life was going to seem wondrous, and that my Herculean task, if David died, would be to keep this sense of wonder from imploding, turn¬ing inward, and reshaping itself as longing and despair. Or perhaps such a task was futile. Perhaps it wasn’t my task at all. What would my task be then and what was wonder anyway? In this novel would you expect that thinking about the wonders of nature will help alleviate feelings of grief?
- Send us your comments and reactions via email to info@littlebrown.co.uk or tweet to #dayfornight and we’ll post them on the site, or submit your comment in the form below. You could win your own free copy!
Posted 16/06/2010 17:47:53 by Emily Rowland with 0 comments.