What Harry Saw: Summary and book reviews of What Harry Saw by Thomas Moran, plus links to an excerpt from What Harry Saw and a biography of Thomas Moran.

From the award-winning author of The Man in the Box, a story of one man's hard-won wisdom about all the things he'd rather forget. The Los Angeles Times compared his debut novel, The Man in the Box, to works by Elie Wiesel and Cynthia Ozick. His second novel, The World I Made for Her, reconfirmed his ability to "immerse you utterly in whatever moment he chooses to describe" (The New York Times Book Review). And in his third novel, Water, Carry Me, he created "one of the most remarkable characters to grace fiction's pages" (The Washington Post Book World). Now, Thomas Moran brings us a brilliantly flawed protagonist who captures a failing all too common among men: He sees only what he wants to see. Harry Hull's short list of things he'd rather forget includes the last three hundred days of his father's life; the cold, hard look from a woman who'd just told him she was pregnant; and the sight of a young girl's fall from a high bluff overlooking the sea. As he recalls his stormy but ever hopeful relationships, we see that Harry's struggles are a test of his capacity to know himself. In the end, as is true for so many of us, what Harry saw is not nearly as unsettling--or as vigorously life-changing--as what he's failed to see.

Media Reviews

The Washington Post The world Moran creates is as tender as the imagined reality of his protagonist--always moving, never maudlin.   BookPage What Harry Saw is another winner for Thomas Moran and a treat for any book lover.   BookPage What Harry Saw is another winner for Thomas Moran and a treat for any book lover   Booklist Moran's writing is intense and muscular, with opalescent flashes of color and brilliance.   Publishers Weekly Harry Hull is a hard guy to like, and Moran risks losing the reader's sympathy for his difficult protagonist.....The irony of the denouement, however, and its realistic assessment of Harry's future, is genuinely affecting.   Library Journal - Lawrence Rungran Harry Hull returns to Australia after his Vietnam service as little more than a shell of a man. Despite his flaws, Harry is an appealing, very human protagonist.   Kirkus Reviews An antipodean tearjerker from Moran (Water, Carry Me, 2000, etc.), this time in the story of a Vietnam vet who messes up his life early on and never seems able to get it straightened out.   Booklist - GraceAnne DeCandido Moran's writing is intense and muscular, with opalescent flashes of color and brilliance....Beautifully composed about the hollow in Harry's center, which he never quite sees clearly.   Midwest Book Review ...well written and as deep and baring as a tale can be.

Recent Reader Reviews

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