Publisher's Synopsis
"Literate and suspenseful... complex and lyrical... drawn from traditions of Southern Gothic horror." Elizabeth Donald, author of Nocturne, Setting Suns, and The Cold Ones.
The small town of Ste. Odile in America has experienced the Great War in ways that no one should ever have to endure. Doctors must tend to births and deaths that make their most difficult cases seem benign. An 1880s schoolteacher is faced with the worst blizzard of her time and must save the children under her charge. A young man searches for his father the abandoned orphanage the older man owns... and both know they will despair at what they find. A primitive woman experiences colonization and the stereotypes of men, yet finds her own method of retribution. "McFarland's writing is lush and sensual, filled with textures, sounds, smells, and primal terrors that have lurked beyond the firelight since prehistory." Kenneth Anderson, Editor of Charon II John S. McFarland has slogged through his characters' woes and woven them into sweetly emotional yet acutely distressful tales. We as readers are forced to understand the pain, the despair, and sometimes the hope of his creations.We realize we are lucky to live in the era we do. We also realize anything can change to tear us apart. Is it fate? Destiny? Or do we bring about these changes on our own? McFarland will let us know. "McFarland tempers his frights with the mercy of familial love and sympathy for outsiders and victims. Horror readers will be riveted." Publishers Weekly
