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Lovecraft Country
- Author
- Matt Ruff
- Narrator
- Kevin Kenerly
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publish Date
- 7 February 2019
- Run Time
- 12 hours 13 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George – publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide – and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite – heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors – they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn – led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb – which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his – and the whole Turner clan’s – destruction.
An imaginative blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism – the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.
Critics Review
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Great fun. You can see why Lovecraft Country has been optioned by HBO for a TV series, and the book’s broader political point, that even ostensible liberals like Caleb Braithwaite exploit the labour of African Americans, as their ancestors did during the slave-owning era, is well made . . . None of the book’s other-worldly encounters feel as dangerous as those moments when a black character runs afoul of a tired police officer or vicious sheriff.
Telegraph
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Smartly subversive pulp horror . . . The book is beautifully structured . . . This must be one of the kindest works in the horror genre I have read. Although the stories have genuine moments of horripilation, what shines through is solidarity, conscience and not backing down in the face of wickedness.
Guardian
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Another "only Matt Ruff could do it" production. Lovecraft Country takes the unlikeliest of premises and spins it into a funny, fast, exciting, and affecting read
Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon
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At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-twentieth-century horror and sci-fi clichés against the banal and ever present bigotry of the era.
New York Times Book Review
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A brilliantly conceived story brilliantly executed
Christopher Moore, author of Lamb and A Dirty Job
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Lovecraft Country doesn't just race along, it tears, demanding that you keep turning its pages without interruption
Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother
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Narrator Kevin Kenerly gives a strong voice to two extended black families who are victimized by racism in this terrifying blend of horror, history, and pulp noir. . . Thanks to Kenerly, this production is a chilling examination of racism, both overt and subtle.
AudioFile
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Ruff’s worldbuilding is a blend of magic, researched realism, and adventure story.
LA Review of Books
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Nonstop adventure that includes time-shifting, shape-shifting, and Lovecraft-like horrors ... Ruff, a cult favorite for his mind-bending fiction, vividly portrays racism as a horror worse than anything conceived by Lovecraft in this provocative, chimerical novel
Booklist
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Lovecraft Country is a genre-bending attempt to address the severe problem of race in modern America, skewering the prejudices of older pulp works while maintaining their flavor, but it’s also a compulsively readable horror-fantasy in its own right: timely, terrifying, and hilarious.
Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
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Ruff shows with great cleverness how it’s possible for a group of victims to appropriate the very methods used to victimize them, master those methods, and bend them to serve their own purposes.
Locus
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I enjoyed every ounce of Ruff's book.
Tor.com
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. . . this newer book rewards patience, and nowhere more so than in the passages where it heartbreakingly weaves Hippolyta into the actual events that surrounded Pluto’s discovery and naming. Once Ruff took me there, I would’ve followed him anywhere in Lovecraft Country.
Seattle Review of Books
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Genuinely spooky . . . But the real horror is the reality of life for African-Americans in the Jim Crow era . . . sparks the imagination while also igniting the reader’s empathy.
Library Journal
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Wonderful from page one . . . Matt Ruff is one of the gentlest, wildest writers of fantastic fiction.
John Crowley, author of Little, Big
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Lovecraft Country is bound to appeal to any reader who wants to delve into the strangeness of our land’s racial legacy.
Seattle Times
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uproariously funny, frequently thrilling, full of clever “firecracker” moments, and constantly surprising . . . this is a book that will leave you cheering, not weeping . . . It’s a heroic story that will have you pumping your fist . . . Ruff has created a story that’s as compelling as it is exciting – and the result is definitely one of the most important books of 2016.
io9
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heartfelt, passionate, polemical, scary and clever
Locus
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He quickly puts you in a chair of his own design, then compels you to sit at its edge . . . Perhaps his greatest victory is giving his characters the space to live and breathe, even when their environment seeks to constrict them. The slippery dialogue and suspense-soaked prose make Lovecraft Country – a challenge to one of the most recognizable legacies in science fiction – worth every dime.
Chicago Review of Books
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The list of authors inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft is nigh-on endless, but we can’t remember the last time we read an homage this intelligent and entertaining . . . Rich, intelligent, sensitive and massively entertaining, this is an absolute pleasure.
Sci Fi Now
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Ruff (The Mirage) has an impressive grasp of classic horror themes . . . Readers will appreciate the irony of how the Turners’ conditioning in enduring racial bias empowers them to master more macabre challenges.
Publishers Weekly
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difficult to read, but even more so to put down.
Odyssey
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Matt Ruff
- Narrator
- Kevin Kenerly
- Duration
- 12 hours 13 minutes
- Release Date
- 7 February 2019
- ISBN
- 9781529013955
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Genre
- Science fiction, Historical fantasy, Magical realism, Horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction, Historical adventure fiction, Narrative theme: sense of place, Fiction: pastiche, Racism and racial discrimination / Anti-racism
Synopsis
Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George – publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide – and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite – heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors – they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn – led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb – which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his – and the whole Turner clan’s – destruction.An imaginative blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism – the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.
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