About this item
Highlights
- A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THINGS THEY CARRIEDOriginally published in 1975, Tim O'Brien's debut novel demonstrates the emotional complexity and enthralling narrative tension that later earned him the National Book Award.
- About the Author: TIM O'BRIEN received the 1979 National Book Award in fiction for Going After Cacciato.
- 372 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
About the Book
In O'Brien's dynamic first novel, a Vietnam vet and his brother vie for the same gal, a native of their dwindling Minnesota hometown. Culminating in a disastrous road trip which ends with the men skiing home through the wilderness, "Northern Lights" spawned themes that would become the author's hallmarks for future works.Book Synopsis
A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THINGS THEY CARRIEDOriginally published in 1975, Tim O'Brien's debut novel demonstrates the emotional complexity and enthralling narrative tension that later earned him the National Book Award. At its core is the relationship between two brothers: one who went to Vietnam and one who stayed at home. As the two brothers struggle against an unexpected blizzard in Minnesota's remote north woods, what they discover about themselves and each other will change both of them for ever.
Review Quotes
"The suspense is spellbinding.. . . What puts this tale above countless others is the care and eloquence of Tim O'Brien."
--Chicago Sun-Times
"Northern Lights is a thrilling story . . . which can be read and enjoyed simply as an adventure story, but digs deeper than that."
--Irish Times
"Gripping and convincing. . . . Northern Lights is an impressive first novel."
--Times Literary Supplement "O'Brien writes superbly, he also has a wonderful ear for ordinary American idiom and the ability to fine-tune its innate rhythms, cadences, and imagery into an authentic popular poetry."
--The Guardian
"Haunting. . . . Survival, courage, and heroes are examined beautifully and simply."
--Publishers Weekly
About the Author
TIM O'BRIEN received the 1979 National Book Award in fiction for Going After Cacciato. His other works include the Pulitzer finalist and a New York Times Book of the Century, The Things They Carried; the acclaimed novels Tomcat in Love and Northern Lights; and the national bestselling memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone. His novel In the Lake of the Woods received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was named the best novel of 1994 by Time. In 2010 he received the Katherine Anne Porter Award for a distinguished lifetime body of work and in 2012 he received the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. He was awarded the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing in 2013.