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Order here, or visit your local independent bookseller.
Anna and John, a master saddle maker, have created a quiet existence for themselves in rural Vermont, a rugged landscape where coyotes roam, bears threaten the livestock, and poachers trespass. When John is murdered in the woods near their home, chronically ill Anna hides his death in a desperate effort to ensure her own survival and suppress long-buried secrets.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom:
"A highly satisfying, delicately woven story about loss, loneliness, life, and death."— KIRKUS
Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom has the hypnotic tone of a dream infused with the rich evocation of place and one woman’s circumstance. It is an utterly affecting combination.
—LIAM DURCAN, author of The Measure of Darkness
In this powerful debut novel, Hammons offers her audience a glance into an intimate portrait of one woman’s grief and journey towards self-sufficiency. Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is raw, emotional, and poignant. Hammons explores the ambiguity of human morality during illness and isolation. As the narrator (Anna) continues to prove her grit and ingenuity, readers experience triumph with her which is deeply felt. Monarchs twists the reader’s perspective as audiences grapple with the reality of a troubled narrator who neither comprehends her own strength or grasps the reality of her situation. Hammons rules over the pen, writing with a deep and honest understanding of the complexity of human emotion and psyche. —Burrowing Owl Books
Chera Hammons writes fiction with the same lyricism that makes her poetry shine. Every sentence sings with grace and music. Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a book you don't read so much as savor. —RICHARD KRAWIEC, author of Time Sharing
Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is particularly memorable for its close reading of the ways of animals, and for its evocation of place: a would-be pristine winter kingdom continually threatened by human arrogance, carelessness, and greed. This is an astonishingly mature first novel, suspenseful, haunted—and haunting—from start to finish. —A. G. MOJTABAI, author of Shine on Me
Ominous from its opening image—blood marring cozy domesticity--Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a haunting beauty. Hammons's prose is tight as tripwire. A quiet madness unfolds and the narrative forces the reader to look and see what the most fragile among us are capable of. Her characters, both human and not, will be with me a long time. —KELLY SOKOL, author of The Unprotected
Order here, or visit your local independent bookseller.
Anna and John, a master saddle maker, have created a quiet existence for themselves in rural Vermont, a rugged landscape where coyotes roam, bears threaten the livestock, and poachers trespass. When John is murdered in the woods near their home, chronically ill Anna hides his death in a desperate effort to ensure her own survival and suppress long-buried secrets.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom:
"A highly satisfying, delicately woven story about loss, loneliness, life, and death."— KIRKUS
Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom has the hypnotic tone of a dream infused with the rich evocation of place and one woman’s circumstance. It is an utterly affecting combination.
—LIAM DURCAN, author of The Measure of Darkness
In this powerful debut novel, Hammons offers her audience a glance into an intimate portrait of one woman’s grief and journey towards self-sufficiency. Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is raw, emotional, and poignant. Hammons explores the ambiguity of human morality during illness and isolation. As the narrator (Anna) continues to prove her grit and ingenuity, readers experience triumph with her which is deeply felt. Monarchs twists the reader’s perspective as audiences grapple with the reality of a troubled narrator who neither comprehends her own strength or grasps the reality of her situation. Hammons rules over the pen, writing with a deep and honest understanding of the complexity of human emotion and psyche. —Burrowing Owl Books
Chera Hammons writes fiction with the same lyricism that makes her poetry shine. Every sentence sings with grace and music. Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a book you don't read so much as savor. —RICHARD KRAWIEC, author of Time Sharing
Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is particularly memorable for its close reading of the ways of animals, and for its evocation of place: a would-be pristine winter kingdom continually threatened by human arrogance, carelessness, and greed. This is an astonishingly mature first novel, suspenseful, haunted—and haunting—from start to finish. —A. G. MOJTABAI, author of Shine on Me
Ominous from its opening image—blood marring cozy domesticity--Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a haunting beauty. Hammons's prose is tight as tripwire. A quiet madness unfolds and the narrative forces the reader to look and see what the most fragile among us are capable of. Her characters, both human and not, will be with me a long time. —KELLY SOKOL, author of The Unprotected
