Reviews of Shelter From The Storm by Michael Mewshaw

Shelter From The Storm

by Michael Mewshaw

Shelter From The Storm by Michael Mewshaw X
Shelter From The Storm by Michael Mewshaw
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

  • First Published:
    Mar 2003, 256 pages

    Paperback:
    Feb 2004, 288 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Buy This Book

About this Book

Book Summary

A beautifully made thriller set in Central Asia that evokes a world of subterfuge, potential chaos and nuance hovering just this side of disbelief.

Zack McClintock, an over-the-hill "security consultant," knows he isn't up to traveling to Central Asia in search of his kidnapped son-in-law. A group claiming to be Islamic fundamentalists has first demanded a million-dollar ransom, then suddenly offered to free the son-in-law if a deranged and feral local child, fallen into the hands of an American woman, is flown to the United States. Zack finds himself in a country teetering on the edge of anarchy, wracked by tribal and sectarian violence, but even he is surprised by how quickly things come apart. Threatened on all sides by deceit, betrayal, and random violence, Zack discovers that the greatest jeopardy originates in the human heart as he tries to understand whether he's being confronted with a last chance at salvation or just another enormous loss.

Shelter from the Storm is storytelling at its best. The timely plot, taut writing, and powerful characters make it a rare achievement.

1

The wolf boy, the wild child, the strange feral creature appeared early one spring as the iced-over streams started to crack and the blown snow on the steppes was melting. In that place whose history, in its most objective rendering, read like a conflation of myth, magic and madness, and where recent events were so turbulent and improbable that any future, or no future, seemed possible, each sign was seen as an omen of potential catastrophe.

The first villagers to spot him kept their distance and watched warily. These were mountain people. They lived with their livestock in huts--dank, cave-like and carved out of rock. Having just wakened from what amounted to months of winter hibernation, they imagined the boy to be a dream-memory or a lingering shade from the spirit world. It was the custom of their clan to butcher animals on feast days and dress the bloody carcasses in human clothing. Then they wrapped themselves in animal hides and cantered about disguised as beasts. ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. In what ways does the setting of a chaotic former Soviet republic, "a 'shatter zone' of anarchic cultures," add to the atmosphere of suspense in the novel? What role does the setting itself - its landscape, history, and cultures - play in the story?

  2. The first villagers who see the wolf-boy imagine him to be "a dream memory or a lingering shade from the spirit world." Later, Tomas tells Zack that "Dr. Medvedev thinks he's retarded and belongs in an asylum. The Mullah thinks he's Satan in human form." Tomas himself suggests that the boy is a victim of secret Russian chemical experiments, while Kathryn believes he was raised by wolves. How would you explain the wolf-boy?

  3. In considering his reasons for coming to Central Asia, Zack ...
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

New York Daily News
....a killing read about mission and rescue.

San Francisco Chronicle
A beautifully made thriller set in Central Asia, Shelter From The Storm deserves at least as much attention as the wonderful espionage fiction of Alan Furst or Robert Littell. . . Like the works of Graham Greene, [Mewshaw's] books evoke a world of subterfuge, potential chaos and nuance hovering just this side of disbelief . . . The plot is sharp and Mewshaw's control over the material is masterly.

Library Journal
The action kicks into high gear and speeds through several hairpin curves to its end . . . This is the sort of intelligent and morally ambitious thriller--like those of Craig Nova or Paul Watkins--that offers a welcome change from typical fare.

Publishers Weekly
A timely, stylish thriller . . .Mewshaw plumbs both the tragic and comically absurd elements of post-Soviet Central Asian life.

Reader Reviews

Sam Meyers

4/5
An intense, "real" book.

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Shelter From The Storm, try these:

  • The Society of Others jacket

    The Society of Others

    by William Nicholson

    Published 2006

    About this book

    More by this author

    Written with the pace and thrust of a thriller, this is a stunning intellectual adventure, a moral fable bursting with art, poetry, music, and profound philosophical insight.

  • The Warlord's Son jacket

    The Warlord's Son

    by Dan Fesperman

    Published 2005

    About this book

    More by this author

    A burned-out war correspondent hoping for a last hurrah in Afghanistan arrives on the Afghan border just as American bombs begin falling on the ruling Taliban in this fast-paced, timely, and galvanizing novel.

We have 4 read-alikes for Shelter From The Storm, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Books with similar themes


Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Holiday Sale!

Discover exceptional books
for just $3/month.

Find out more


Award Winners

  • Book Jacket: The Covenant of Water
    The Covenant of Water
    by Abraham Verghese
    BookBrowse Fiction Award 2023

    Along the Malabar Coast of South India in 1900, a 12-year-old girl ...
  • Book Jacket: In Memoriam
    In Memoriam
    by Alice Winn
    BookBrowse Debut Book Award 2023

    Alice Winn's remarkable debut, In Memoriam, opens in 1914 at ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wager
    The Wager
    by David Grann
    BookBrowse Nonfiction Award 2023

    David Grann is a journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker and...
  • Book Jacket: Remember Us
    Remember Us
    by Jacqueline Woodson
    BookBrowse YA Book Award 2023

    Remember Us is set largely across a single hazy summer of the 1970s in...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Julia
by Sandra Newman
From critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman, a brilliantly relevant retelling of Orwell's 1984 from the point of Smith's lover, Julia.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Witches at the End of the World
    by Chelsea Iversen

    Two sisters find themselves at odds in this historical fantasy set during a dark Norwegian winter.

  • Book Jacket

    Alfie and Me
    by Carl Safina

    A moving account of raising, then freeing, an orphaned screech owl. Three starred reviews!

Who Said...

You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.