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Book Summary and Reviews of The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

The Lighthouse Road

A Novel

by Peter Geye

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2012, 280 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Against the wilds of sea and wood, a young immigrant woman settles into life outside Duluth in the 1890s, still shocked at finding herself alone in a new country, abandoned and adrift; in the early 1920s, her orphan son, now grown, falls in love with the one woman he shouldn't and uses his best skills to build them their own small ark to escape. But their pasts travel with them, threatening to capsize even their fragile hope.

In this triumphant new novel, Peter Geye has crafted another deeply moving tale of a misbegotten family shaped by the rough landscape in which they live - often at the mercy of wildlife and weather - and by the rough edges of their own breaking hearts.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"With spare realism, Geye puts a fresh spin on a familiar tale, rendering a powerful portrayal of family bonds in an era long past. Highly recommended." - Library Journal

"Starred Review. The echoes of the characters' heartbreak through the generations are as haunting as the howling of the wolves on the wind." - Booklist

"Peter Geye writes with the mesmerizing power of the snowstorms that so often come howling off Lake Superior. I am in awe of how he swirls through so many years and juggles so many characters, all of them unforgettable and weighed down by secrets and regrets and desires that burn through the hoarfrost of Geye's bristling sentences." - Benjamin Percy

This information about The Lighthouse Road 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.

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Author Information

Peter Geye

Peter Geye received his M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans and his Ph.D. from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. Also the author of the award-winning novel, Safe from the Sea, he lives in Minnesota.

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