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by Ian Pisarcik
For fans of David Joy and Christopher J. Yates, comes Ian Pisarcik's haunting debut novel exploring the fraught nature of families and the inescapable secrets that are out to cripple them.
On the outskirts of a town too tired for its own happenings, the boys were found dead inside a tent.
Three years later, their fathers have disappeared, too.
Ruth Fenn's son was the boy they blamed. For three years, Ruth has accepted her lot as pariah, focusing on her ailing mother and the children left in her care by the struggling single parents of North Falls, Vermont. But now the additional loss of her husband is too much to bear, and she has no choice but to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it. But as she edges closer to the truth, she begins to uncover some secrets that are better left buried.
That's when she meets Milk Raymond, a war vet who comes home to find his nine-year-old son abandoned by his mother. Unable to find work, with no idea how to be a father, Milk turns to Ruth for help. But as the mystery of Ruth's missing husband deepens, the fragile stability Milk has created for Daniel is shattered by the ill-fated return of Daniel's mother, who will stop at nothing to get her boy back.
As these unsettled and interconnected lives hurtle towards a devastating conclusion, both Ruth and Milk are about to learn that their dying Vermont town has more secrets than they ever thought possible--and there are those who will do anything to protect them.
"[O]utstanding...Familiar landscapes become quietly ominous as the characters set about doing what they have to do. The action builds toward a devastating yet mildly hopeful conclusion. Pisarcik is a writer to watch." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Beautifully done and will certainly strike a chord with readers who appreciate the similar styles of Daniel Woodrell and David Joy." - Booklist
"Before Familiar Woods, a novel dripping with heart and grit and tears, is an electrifying debut from Ian Pisarcik. Rarely are thrillers this elegantly told and seldom full of such beauty. Like all the best tales, this compelling story feels like it has been sitting in the dark for centuries waiting patiently to be told by someone with Pisarcik's immense talent and empathy. I will be first in line for anything he writes after this." - Christopher J. Yates, author of Black Chalk and Grist Mill Road
"Poignant and searingly authentic, Pisarcik's mesmerizing, heartfelt debut pulls you in and doesn't let go—a haunting testament to survival of family and community in a poor and desperate landscape." - Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
"Pisarcik wields a poet's eye, stacking images for a novel that flips and turns like the pages of a photo album. Before Familiar Woods is ripe with unforgettable characters. This is a debut to savor." - David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us
"Ian Pisarcik has written the best kind of thriller: gritty, dark, and tragically human. Intriguing mysteries keep the pages turning, but it is this novel's people—roughhewn, fractured, grasping for family—who linger long after the covers close." - John Larison, author of Whiskey When We're Dry
This information about Before Familiar Woods was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ian Pisarcik was born and raised in rural New England. His stories and poems have appeared in the Roanoke Review, Lullwater Review, Maine Review, and the Flyway Journal of Writing and Environment. He currently lives in Washington State with his wife and Labrador retriever. Before Familiar Woods is his first novel.
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