About the Book
The lives of two women--the sole survivor of an airplane crash and the troubled park ranger leading the rescue mission--collide in this "gripping," (Vogue) "heart-pounding," (NPR) and "highly original" (LA Times) novel of tough-minded resilience.Longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas PrizeA New York Times New and Noteworthy BookAn O, The Oprah Magazine Best Book of JanuaryThe sole survivor of a plane crash, seventy-two-year-old Cloris Waldrip is lost and alone in the unforgiving wilderness of Montana's rugged Bitterroot Range, exposed to the elements with no tools beyond her wits and ingenuity. Intertwined with her story is Debra Lewis, a park ranger struggling with addiction and a recent divorce who is galvanized by her new mission to find and rescue Cloris.As Cloris wanders mountain forests and valleys, subsisting on whatever she can scavenge, her hold on life ever more precarious, Ranger Lewis and her motley group of oddball rescuers follow the trail of clues she's left behind. Days stretch into weeks, and hope begins to fade. But with nearly everyone else giving up, Ranger Lewis stays true until the end.Dramatic and morally complex, Kingdomtide is a story of the decency and surprising resilience of ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances. In powerful, exquisite prose, debut novelist Rye Curtis delivers an inspiring account of two unforgettable characters whose heroism reminds us that survival is only the beginning.
About the Author :
Rye Curtis is originally from Amarillo, Texas. He is a graduate of Columbia University and now lives in Queens. Kingdomtide is his first novel. Jo Anna Perrin is an audiobook narrator whose readings include Disarming the Narcissist by Wendy T. Behary, You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin, American Freak Show by Willie Geist, and many others.
Maggi-Meg Reed has performed as an actress and singer both on and off-Broadway. She is a narrator of many popular audiobooks, including A Very Long Engagement and The Time Traveler's Wife. She is the winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Review :
"Kingdomtide is a truly spectacular first novel: weird, tender, funny, grotesque--above all, deeply, achingly human."
-- "Jennifer Egan, New York Times bestselling author"
"An impressive novel."
-- "New York Times"
"Cloris's haughtiness and bemused umbrage land hilariously in the spot-on performance of the audiobook's narrators...Both make excellent contributions."
-- "Literary Hub (audio review)"
"Narrators Maggi-Meg Reed and Jo Anna Perrin bring characters Cloris and Debra to life with such ringing clarity that audiences may feel lost in the wild with them."
-- "Paste magazine (audio review)"
"That rare genre-fluid story that is lovable both because of and despite its surfeit of eccentric, over-the-top characters and moments. Some are gritty and dark, others light and wise; together they create an impressive first book and a highly original tale of adventure and perseverance."
-- "Los Angeles Times"
A heart-pounding tale... Riveting and surprising... Kindness helps steer this heartbreaking tale in a heartwarming direction... Rye Curtis keeps us turning pages as Cloris confronts bobcats, hypothermia, starvation, icy inundation, and a strange mountain lion who walks backwards... Predicated on a cataclysmic, life-changing accident, Kingdomtide offers a transportive read... A stirring debut.-- "Heller McAlpin, NPR"
Rye Curtis's debut novel, Kingdomtide, is that rare genre-fluid story that is lovable both because of and despite its surfeit of eccentric, over-the-top characters and moments. Some are gritty and dark, others light and wise; together they create an impressive first book and a highly original tale of adventure and perseverance... Cloris Waldrip is immediately irresistible. Her first-person voice bubbles with a sage vibrancy as well as sometimes laugh-out-loud wit... It's Waldrip who suggests that life stories are shaped by those who live to retell them---something she has done in this narrative with formidable grace... Kingdomtide is a distinctive and inventive story about nonconformity, resilience, and the ways we draw strength from unlikely places.-- "Janet Kinosian, Los Angeles Times"
Kingdomtide is a truly spectacular first novel: weird, tender, funny, grotesque--above all, deeply, achingly human. It tugged at my thoughts during the days I spent reading it, and has made for itself a permanent place in my memory.-- "Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Manhattan Beach and A Visit from the Goon Squad"
Kingdomtide is much more than a harrowing tale of survival in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana. A plane crash and rescue operation in this debut are but a pretext for a rich and stunning examination of the wayward. Rye Curtis has written a splendid, funny, and insightful book, and created an exuberant affirmation of the soul--lost, found, or (like most of us) in some kind of transit.-- "Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek"
Kingdomtide is an extraordinary debut novel that feels like the result of a fortuitous lab spill involving, in one rack of tubes, the essential literary fluids of Denis Johnson, Annie Proulx, and Flannery O'Connor, and, in the other, the sweet morality of Leif Enger, Kent Haruf, and Charles Portis. (When you think of the indelible Cloris Waldrip of these pages, picture True Grit's Mattie Ross at age seventy-two, still kicking ass and taking names.) But although a reader can at times sense various veins coming down from various mountains, they are always in service of the one big heart that becomes Kingdomtide, a book that is wise, touching, and most of all original.-- "Rick Bass, author national bestseller and Story Prize winner of For a Little While"
A darkly humorous debut...A captivating survival story...By turns thrilling, poignant, and hilarious, Kingdomtide is carried along by Cloris Waldrip's irresistible first-person narration. She is so matter-of-fact, wry, and indomitable it's not hard to imagine she's a granddaughter of True Grit's Mattie Ross...This is a promising first novel.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
First novels are often praised for an author's potential, but Kingdomtide displays a talent fully realized. Cloris Waldrip's trek through wilderness after a plane crash is suspenseful from start to finish, but as the lives of her potential rescuers are revealed, the novel also moves through the even deeper wilderness of the human heart. Rye Curtis is a writer of exceptional talent.-- "Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena"
Rye Curtis's debut novel is an astonishing work. His powerful and convincing characters are at risk in a harsh and beautiful landscape in which the best and worst are revealed, and nothing is as it initially seems. Kingdomtide is at once a page-turner and a meditation on the complexity of the human experience and spirit.-- "Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone and The Maid's Version"
Stop reading this blurb right now and read the first paragraph of Kingdomtide. If you can stop after that, you'll know you're a robot. A defective robot. Kingdomtide will bring you to tears of laughter, tears of joy, and...are there tears of insight? Rye Curtis is a fireball of talent.-- "James Hannaham, PEN/Faulkner Award winner for Delicious Foods"
"First novels are often praised for an author's potential, but Kingdomtide displays a talent fully realized...Rye Curtis is a writer of exceptional talent."
-- "Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author"
