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Shooting the Heart

With his previous novels — So Far Gone, Eyes Like Mine, and The Stolen Child — Paul Cody has established himself as a writer with uncommon gifts. Brian Hall (author of I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company) has said of his new novel: "I can think of no one else who writes with Cody's combination of savagery and tenderness, or who displays such a translucent style to such reverberant effect." Cody here journeys into the mind of Earl Madden, a former Boston schoolteacher who has been committed to a state mental hospital. Manic depressive and heavily sedated, Earl is haunted by the disturbing question: Did I kill my wife? Could I have done such a thing? As the novel progresses, Earl recalls with intermittent clarity his unstable childhood, his brief courtship and marriage, and his obsession with serial killers. He broods too about American history and literature, and about his lost parents and brother, but especially about his missing wife. Luminously written and intensely frightening, Shooting the Heart is an unforgettable novel that will grip the reader in suspense until its final revelation.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 272
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780670033096
  • Genres
  • fiction
  • Release date
  • 2004