Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2011
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In Sawgamet, a north woods boomtown gone bust, the cold of winter breaks the glass of the schoolhouse thermometer, and the dangers of working in the cuts are overshadowed by the mysteries and magic lurking in the woods. Stephen, a pastor, is at home on the eve of his mother's funeral, thirty years after the mythic summer his grandfather returned to the town in search of his beloved but long-dead wife. And like his grandfather, Stephen is forced to confront the losses of his past.
Touch introduces you to a world where monsters and witches oppose singing dogs and golden caribou, where the living and the dead part and meet again in the crippling beauty of winter and the surreal haze of summer.
"Starred Review. The rugged wilderness is captured exquisitely, as is Stephen's uncommon childhood, and despite a narrative rife with tragedy, Zentner's elegant prose keeps the story buoyant." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. One of those books that gets people talking" - Quill & Quire (Canada)
"Touch is one of those rare novels that simultaneously takes hold of both your imagination and your heart and does not let go.... It's a gem of a book." - Aryn Kyle, author of The God of Animals
"Touch is... full of images so beautiful and strange that they are haunting. Touch more than delivers on the promise of its title: long after the last page, you will still be in its grip." - Josh Weil, author of The New Valley
"An affecting debut from a major new talent." - Philipp Meyer, author of American Rust
"Touch is a stunning and provocative debut. Zentner mines the human heart to blend humor with tragedy, myth with reality, addicting his audience to a world as uplifting as it is brutal." - Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife
"Touch is full of a sinister magic... incredible grace and greatness of heart." - Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton
This information about Touch 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.
Alexi Zentner is the winner of the 2008 Narrative Prize and 2008 O. Henry Prize, and his fiction has been featured in The Atlantic and Tin House. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his family.
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