About the Book
Henry Childs is just seventeen when he falls into a love affair so intense it nearly consumes him. But Mercy s family disapproves, and the two young lovers flee to New Orleans to play out their passionate affair, until Mercy s father hunts them down, takes his daughter home, and sends Henry running for his life. The time is 1950, and the Korean War hangs in the balance. Descended from a long line of soldiers, Henry enlists in the Marines and arrives in Korea on the eve of the brutal battle of the Chosin Reservoir, with temperatures fifty degrees below zero and an enemy force far beyond the scope of his imagining. But the challenges he meets upon his return home, scarred and haunted, are greater by far. Award-winning author Robert Olmstead takes us into one of the most physically challenging battles in history and, with just as much intensity, into an electrifying, all-consuming love affair.
Review :
"Working-class boy meets rich girl, and forbidden passion flares, in this thought-provoking, unabashedly romantic novel set in the 1950s."--"O, The Oprah Magazine"
"Olmstead writes with ferocious economy . . . The book's continuities are a deep pleasure: a near-mystical regard for horses, for mothers, for weapons--all wrapped in a kind of elegiac masculinity. Olmstead has some of the Cormac McCarthy penchant for mixing tenderness into his terror.""--The Cleveland Plain Dealer"
"An unflinchingly realistic, yet artistic, condemnation of war. Disparate backgrounds and desperate times are a seductive combination. Olmstead makes good use of them, and what ultimately distinguishes his exceptional work from more pedestrian literature is his elegant prose. 'Prosody'--the study of the art of versification--is a word that Henry may not have recognized, but readers of "The Coldest Night" will not have to consult a dictionary for its definition; Olmstead's writing demonstrates its meaning perfectly."--"BookBrowse"
"[An] elegiac, gritty coming-of-age novel . . . Despite the narrative's darkening vision ("The Lord is a man of war," says Henry), enough redemption rescues Olmstead's powerful, desolate, and well-crafted novel from becoming oppressively bleak."--"Publishers Weekly," starred review
"Olmstead ("Coal Black Horse") has a spare, direct style that is most effective in the brilliant, engrossing combat descriptions and ironic marine banter."--"Library Journal"
"It's extremes that rivet us in Olmstead's searing seventh novel: the heaven of first love; the hell of the battlefield . . . Olmstead's extraordinary language gives us new eyes. An exceptionally fine study of love, war and the double-edged role of memory, which can both sustain and destroy. Prize-winning material."--"Kirkus Reviews, " starred review
"Olmstead employs different authorial voices to shape the story. At times the tone is mythic, at times surreal . . . "The Coldest Night" is powerful,
"The no-rush gait, the unadorned yet unambiguous description, the resonant alliteration . . . This is the kind of sentence that warms "The Coldest Night" and makes you wonder if Olmstead was meant to be a poet. But Olmstead is a novelist, and a very good one . . . It's his depiction of war's less monstrous aspects--the continuous repositioning of troops and reshuffling of strongholds, the ceaseless anticipation of surprise attacks, the unmitigated exhaustion--that steadily unsettles . . . These lines lend a humanity to war that descriptions of guts and gore alone cannot."--"The New York Times Book Review""There are very few living American writers it would be fair to pair up with Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison in a review. Robert Olmstead, however, brings enough poetic oomph to his battlefield renderings to manage just fine . . . Put Olmstead on a battlefield and stand back. The writing is powerful and the imagery stark. Readers will find that the forgotten war roars back to life again in the pages of Olmstead's excellent novel."--"The Christian Science Monitor"""The Coldest Night" is riveting, thoughtful and--in the large section set in Korea--harrowing . . . Olmstead is an immensely gifted stylist, his prose capable of conveying the magic and passion of first love as well as the ferocity of battle. He also has a knack for imagery as memorable as it is unexpected . . . Few write as powerfully or as realistically as Olmstead about the way war makes a boy grow up far too fast."--"The Washington Post ""Working-class boy meets rich girl, and forbidden passion flares, in this thought-provoking, unabashedly romantic novel set in the 1950s."--"O, The Oprah Magazine"
"Robert Olmstead's "The Coldest Night" is an unusual treat in this era of formulaic airport paperbacks, lightly edited Internet releases and over-hyped pop fiction. It's not just a standout in terms of plot, character development and effective use of language; the reader immediately marvels that this
Editors Pick for Amazon s Best of 2012 list
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Fiction Books of 2012
The no-rush gait, the unadorned yet unambiguous description, the resonant alliteration . . . This is the kind of sentence that warms "The Coldest Night" and makes you wonder if Olmstead was meant to be a poet. But Olmstead is a novelist, and a very good one . . . It s his depiction of war s less monstrous aspects the continuous repositioning of troops and reshuffling of strongholds, the ceaseless anticipation of surprise attacks, the unmitigated exhaustion that steadily unsettles . . . These lines lend a humanity to war that descriptions of guts and gore alone cannot. "The New York Times Book Review" There are very few living American writers it would be fair to pair up with Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison in a review. Robert Olmstead, however, brings enough poetic oomph to his battlefield renderings to manage just fine . . . Put Olmstead on a battlefield and stand back. The writing is powerful and the imagery stark. Readers will find that the forgotten war roars back to life again in the pages of Olmstead s excellent novel. "The Christian Science Monitor" "The Coldest Night" is riveting, thoughtful and in the large section set in Korea harrowing . . . Olmstead is an immensely gifted stylist, his prose capable of conveying the magic and passion of first love as well as the ferocity of battle. He also has a knack for imagery as memorable as it is unexpected . . . Few write as powerfully or as realistically as Olmstead about the way war makes a boy grow up far too fast. "The Washington Post " Working-class boy meets rich girl, and forbidden passion flares, in this thought-provoking, unabashedly romantic novel set in the 1950s. "O, The Oprah Magazine"
Robert Olmstead's "The Coldest Night" is an unusual treat in this era of formulaic airport paperbacks, lightly edited Internet releases and over-hyped pop fiction. It's
