Lost River, 1918 - by Faith Shearin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize
"Lost River has the feel of an instant classic." Anthony McGowan, Carnegie Medal Winner.

Lost River is the story of the Van Beest family, which inherits a house at the edge of a magical forest where the dead return from the afterlife. When 10-year-old Anne's mother, a midwife, delivers a stillborn baby and her father, a mortician, accidentally brings that infant back to life, the Van Beests find themselves at the center of a drama that raises questions about the relationship between the living and the dead.

Review Quotes

"Lost River is an extraordinary work of art. It is a story of death and rebirth, borrowing from myth and fairy tale, but also conjuring up literary texts from Frankenstein and Dracula, from Southern Gothic to Magical Realism. Yet it remains entirely itself, not quite like anything else I've read. The prose is rich and delicate, the characters memorable, the story immersive. It has the feel of an instant classic." Anthony McGowan, Carnegie Medal Winner for Lark and Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize YA Judge 2021.

About the Author

Faith Shearin's books of poetry include: The Owl Question (May Swenson Award), Moving the Piano (SFA University Press), Telling the Bees (SFA University Press), Orpheus, Turning (Dogfish Head Poetry Prize), Darwin's Daughter (SFA University Press), and Lost Language (Press 53). Her short stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, Meridian, Literal Latte, Atticus Review, Frigg and Bellevue Literary Review among others. She has received awards from Yaddo, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Recent work has been read aloud on The Writer's Almanac and included in American Life in Poetry. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.