The devil's footprints
Subtitle: a romance
By: John Burnside
Edition: Large print ed.
Publisher: Ulverscroft
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Leicester
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9781847820563
Subjects: Social isolation; Fiction; Fishing ports; Abused wives; Suicide victims
Description: Michael Gardiner has lived in Coldhaven all his life yet still feels like an outsider. Married but rather distant from his wife, he reads in the local paper that a school friend, Moira Birnie, has killed herself and her two sons by setting their car on fire; but she has spared her 14-year-old daughter Hazel. Michael uneasily recalls his past connections to Moira. As teenagers, Michael and Moira had a brief romance, yet more troubling to Michael is the fact that he was responsible for the death of Moira's brother, the town bully. In the wake of the tragedy, Michael becomes obsessed with Hazel, who is just old enough to be his daughter. Aware of his obsession, Hazel convinces Michael to take her away from the village and her father, an abusive and violent man. Setting his story against the untamed Scottish landscape, John Burnside has written a chilling novel that explores the elemental forces of everyday life: love, fear, grief, and the hope of redemption. In its ability to evoke and exploit our most primal fears, "The Devil's Footprints" prompts comparisons to the best of Stephen King. In both language and imagery, it is a novel of mysterious beauty, written with the clarity and power of a folktale.
Notes: Originally published: London: Jonathan Cape, 2007.