Excerpted from the monthly Queen Anne & Magnolia News column by Joann Moreno. Every month in the local paper for Seattle neighborhoods served by Queen Anne Book Company and Magnolia’s Bookstore, Moreno recommends new books. For the full October column (including more books), click here.
October is to publishing what October is to baseball: that time of year when we witness outstanding talent and take great joy in the extraordinary efforts of our heroes. Stop into your local bookstore and check out the “New Fiction” table — it’s teeming with talent. Happy fall, and happy reading!
The Local Buzz Book: A Sudden Light, by Garth Stein . . .
Seattleite Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, has just released his highly anticipated new novel, A Sudden Light. It’s the multi-generational story of the Riddell family, an old-money Seattle timber family whose most recent issue, 14-year-old Trevor Riddell, visits his ancestral home for the first time with his father, Jones. While Jones is trying to commandeer and reconcile the family inheritance, Trevor discovers his family story, one he knew nothing about: a quirky aunt, a shamed and ailing grandfather, hidden journals, family secrets and ghosts.
Stein’s beautiful writing packs a velvety punch and is pure pleasure to read. A Sudden Light entertains with suspenseful story lines and satisfies with its message of family, story and redemption.
And with patriarchal family names like Elijah, Abraham, Benjamin and Samuel, the layers of meaning reveal a bit more to those who have ears to hear it.