About the Book
"Disquieting, deceptive, crafted with a sly and measured expertise, Alison Moore's story could certainly deliver a masterclass in slow-burn storytelling. "—The Independent
"The Lighthouse is a spare, slim novel that explores grief and loss, the patterns in the way we are hurt and hurt others, and the childlike helplessness we feel as we suffer rejection and abandonment. . . . The brutal ending continues to shock after several re-readings. "—The Guardian
"[A] hauntingly complex exploration of the recurring patterns that life inevitably follows, often as a consequence of one's past. "—The Sunday Times
Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heads to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. During his circular walk along the Rhine, he contemplates the formative moments of his childhood. At the end of the week, Futh returns to what he sees as the sanctuary of his hotel, unaware of the events which have been unfolding there in his absence.
Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards, winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants (Biblioasis, 2015), were Observer Books of the Year. A third novel, Death and the Seaside, is forthcoming in the US from Biblioasis. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies and is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Moore lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border with her husband and son.
About the Author :
Alison Moore’s first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year. A third novel, Death and the Seaside, is forthcoming in the US from Biblioasis. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies and is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Born in Manchester in 1971, Alison lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border with her husband and son.
Review :
PRAISE FOR ALISON MOORE
“As the parallel stories unpack these two [protagonists'] respective pasts, talismans of memory seem to uncannily connect them: Venus flytraps, the smell of a certain perfume, replica lighthouses that both keep as protective charms. Ms. Moore has written a short, bleak, atmospheric book full of such strange symbols that, in the murk of Futh’s confusion, suddenly come aglow with meaning.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“Starkly written and suspenseful, this novel ... is a slow burn of jealousy, anger, and anxiety that reads like a drama peeked at through a crack in a door. Moore’s prose is sharp and often sparse, while her characters are loathsome and sympathetic by turns. Complex and thrilling, this meditation on the past is a gripping story of betrayal and its lingering effects.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Moore’s deceptively simple style perfectly suits this tale of memory, sadness, and self-doubt ... [A] satisfying, mysterious novel.”—Publishers Weekly
“The Lighthouse is a powerfully poetic and moving study of loss, grief, and abandonment ...”—New York Journal of Books
“Melancholy and haunting.”—Margaret Drabble
“Disquieting, deceptive, crafted with a sly and measured expertise, Alison Moore’s story could certainly deliver a masterclass in slow-burn storytelling.”—The Independent
“The Lighthouse is a page turner… we’re immersed in a chilly, heart-wrenching story that seems to say that, for all our obsessions with old wounds and childhood hurts, the thing that damages us most of all is the thing of which we are unaware.”—The Guardian
“Moore’s writing has a superb sense of the weight of memory.”—Kate Saunders, The Times
“A haunting and accomplished novel.”—The Independent on Sunday (UK)
“It is this accumulation of the quotidian, in prose as tight as Magnus Mills’s, which lends Moore’s book its standout nature, and brings the novel to its ambiguous, thrilling end.”—The Telegraph (UK)
“Though sparely told, the novel’s simple-seeming narrative has the density of far longer work. People and places are intricately evoked with a forensic feel for mood.”—The Daily Mail (UK)
“Moore’s writing has a superb sense of the weight of memory.”—The Times (UK)
“The Lighthouse is a spare, slim novel that explores grief and loss, the patterns in the way we are hurt and hurt others, and the childlike helplessness we feel as we suffer rejection and abandonment. It explores the central question about leaving and being left: even when it feels inevitable, why does it hurt so much, and why is this particular kind of numbness so repellent to others? The brutal ending continues to shock after several re-readings.”—The Guardian (UK)
“The Lighthouse looks simple but isn't, refusing to unscramble what seems a bleak moral about the hazards of reproduction, in the widest sense. Small wonder that it stood up to the crash-testing of a prize jury's reading and rereading. One of the year's 12 best novels? I can believe it.”—The Observer (UK)
