The Wind through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel(4.5 The Dark Tower)

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba. For readers new to The Dark Tower, THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE is a stand-alone novel, and a wonderful introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Fans of the existing seven books in the series will also delight in discovering what happened to Roland and his ka tet between the time they leave the Emerald City and arrive at the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. This Russian Doll of a novel, a story within a story, within a story, visits Mid-World's last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, and his ka-tet as a ferocious storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. (The novel can be placed between Dark Tower IV and Dark Tower V.) Roland tells a tale from his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt ridden year following his mother's death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape shifter, a 'skin man,' Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter. Roland, himself only a teenager, calms the boy by reciting a story from the Book of Eld that his mother used to read to him at bedtime, 'The Wind through the Keyhole.' 'A person's never too old for stories,' he says to Bill. 'Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them.' And stories like these, they live for us. (P)2012 Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

About the Author :
STEPHEN KING is the author of more than seventy books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His crime thrillers featuring Holly Gibney include Mr Mercedes, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel, and The Outsider, both of which were adapted into successful TV series, as well as Finders Keepers, End of Watch and the title story from If It Bleeds. Many of his titles are the basis for major motion pictures including IT, Stand By Me (adapted from The Body) and The Shawshank Redemption, which is IMDb's top-rated movie of all time. King is the recipient of The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence 2022, the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Review :
[A] phantasmagorical folk tale . . . King's ability to entertain and unsettle cannot be denied. The skill with which he delivers a shock or sense of gothic terror is simply unmatched - Independent on Sunday Perfectly balanced: another excellent example of King's sheer skill as a storyteller. - Daily Express A frantic-paced puzzle-box adventure that encompasses gunslinger Roland Deschain's early years, werewolves and powerful storytelling. - Shortlist King is one of the great popular artists of our time. - Independent Like John Steinbeck, he's an unfussy writer whose voice is rooted equally in the rhythms of everyday speech and the mythic made manifest in everyday life. Indeed, reading King, you often sense the presence of the dustbowl America of The Grapes of Wrath . . . a King novel has a sparse elegance that most novelists never achieve in a whole career. Put it down to the insistent, economical and wholly distinctive authorial voice. - SFX Magazine Classic King, fine characters, compellingly written in a gripping, well-honed plot - Daily Express on WOLVES OF THE CALLA Superbly energetic, it's King at his best. - Mail on Sunday on WIZARD AND GLASS