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Centuries of June

A Novel

Keith Donohue

$35

Paperback

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English
Random House Inc
15 July 2012
For fans of Nicholson Baker and David Mitchell, a multilayered, lively, and wholly original novel from bestselling author Keith Donohue

Set in the bathroom of an old house just before dawn on a night in June, Centuries of June is a black comedy about a man attempting to tell the story of how he ended up on the floor with a hole in his head. But he keeps getting interrupted by a series of suspects-eight women lying in the bedroom just down the hall. Each woman tells a story drawn from five centuries of American myth and legend in a wild medley of styles and voices.

Keith Donohue has been praised for his vivid imagination and for evoking ""the otherworldly with humor and the ordinary with wonder"" (Audrey Niffenegger). Centuries of June is a romp through history, a madcap murder mystery, an existential ghost story, and a stunning tour de force at once ingenious, sexy, inspiring, and ultimately deeply moving.
By:  
Imprint:   Random House Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 203mm,  Width: 131mm,  Spine: 19mm
Weight:   255g
ISBN:   9780307450296
ISBN 10:   0307450295
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Keith Donohue is the author of the acclaimed novels The Stolen Child and Angels of Destruction. For several years he was a speechwriter at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., and he now works at another federal agency. He lives with his family in Wheaton, Maryland.

Reviews for Centuries of June: A Novel

<p> Part ghost story, part psychological mystery and part vaudeville show. Think Scheherazade by way of Tristram Shandy by way of The Sixth Sense. -- Washington Post <br><br> A tour de force in its mastery of styles, the book also has moments of high silliness--though toward the end Donohue weaves the threads of plot together in a surprising and affecting way. -- Kirkus Reviews<br><br> Donohue's faultless eye for character and keen sense of humor keeps what could easily become a muddled mess pristine, with members of his quorum shining individually but also acting as cogs in the larger story's machinery. There are moments when the reader is left to wonder how things can possibly come together, but it's worthwhile to trust Donohue's narrators as they lead this puzzling and greatly satisfying trip. -- Publishers Weekly<br><br> Donohue's polished prose holds the story together and offers a more than satisfying ending. -- Booklist<br><br> VERDICT: Donohue's tour de force blends aspects of time travel and reincarnation genres into a witty whole. With a touch of David Mitchell and Audrey Niffenegger, but a witty style uniquely the author's own, this novel about a clueless man, who may in some future life get it right, is a pleasure to read. -- Library Journal<br><br> [T]he product here is uniquely Donohue, and the craft seamless in the spinning of an absorbing skein of yarns in a marvelous display of voice weaving together to form a single tapestry: a parti-colored utterance (to quote Annie Dillard) unfolding about love, mortality, men and women, memory, family, and the fundamental force of storytelling. -- Buffalo News <br><br><br> From the Hardcover edition.


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