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Search - On Night's Shore

On Night's Shore
Author: Randall Silvis

It is the summer of 1840 -- for some in New York City a season of prosperity; for others, another season of desperation. This is the milieu of On Night's Shore, an amazing literary thriller from an author hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "a masterful storyteller." — Randall Silvis's On Night's Shore opens with one of the most spellbind... more »ing scenes in contemporary writing. A girl tosses her baby from a warehouse window, then follows the infant into the Hudson River far below. The only witness to this desperate act is a ten-year-old street arab named Augie Dubbins, a boy who survives by the motto, "In calamity, opportunity." Augie does what he can to make a few pennies from the girl's tragedy. In doing so he encounters another of the desperate ones, a struggling young journalist named Edgar Allan Poe, a poet and critic and newspaper hack whose penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time has not only stymied his advancement as a writer but has earned him more than a few enemies.

Poe, too, hopes to use the girl's misfortune to fatten his threadbare purse. His efforts to do so lead to the discovery of the body of yet another young woman, and the ensuing investigation of her murder soon entraps Poe in a mire of murder, greed, lust and power that stretches from the Five Points slums to the gleaming heights of Fifth Avenue.

But On Night's Shore is much more than just a page-turner. Here we see deep into the troubled psyche of Edgar Allan Poe, the father of all detective stories. We see the darkness that drove him, the demons that plagued him. We also see the tenderness with which he treated his young wife, soon to die herself, and his devoted, stalwart mother-in-law, and the avuncular kindness he lavished on Augie Dubbins, who in ten short years has witnessed more brutality and perversity than even Poe could imagine. And we see all of these characters entwined in the tentacles of a power struggle to control the fate of New York City, the sleazy underbelly of a political and business elite that speaks as much to today's society as it did to Poe's.

Seldom does an historical thriller so authentically recreate a time and place as does On Night's Shore. Not since E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime have readers been treated to such a rich cast of characters, both real and imagined, or to a story so suspenseful and compelling-all of it rendered in some of the most luminous prose being written today.

In this, his eighth book of fiction, Randall Silvis brilliantly bridges the gap between serious and popular literature. On Night's Shore is a stunning and haunting achievement.

ISBN-13: 9780312982102
ISBN-10: 0312982100
Publication Date: 2/18/2002
Pages: 368
Rating:

Currently 4.4/5 Stars.

4.4 stars, based on 4 ratings

Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Heather K. (lolomommy) reviewed On Night's Shore on 10/7/2008 + 13 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

I really liked this book. The author really made New York in 1840 come to life. I was hesitant at first with the main character being Edgar Allen Poe. I am a big fan of his, but I wasn't sure the author could make him into a likable hero. I was surprised at the good job he did. Even though it is fiction, I think my view of what sort of man Poe might have been has changed.

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