“A gifted writer . . . elegant ideas . . . beautiful writing . . .”
—New York Times Book Review
BOOKS
Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
Marvelously poetic, taut, impeccably observed, nerved everywhere with honest, painful insight
Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
by Lynn Stegner
Length: 282 pages
Publisher: UPNE
Publication date: July 1, 2000
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1584650638
hardcover
Available where all fine books are sold.
In the space of less than a year, three people in a small New England village make life-defining decisions. When a stranger moves into Harrow—a stranger without a past and without a conscience—old conflicts flare, threatening familiar foundations, and exposing possibilities of new ones. In the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio, Lynn Stegner takes the linked story form to new heights as she explores the interactions of circumstance and temperament in determining people’s choices in the face of their unsettled issues.
In “The Hired Man,” Ray Rinaldi, a teenager running his alcoholic father’s farm, agonizes over his family obligations and his opportunity to escape the stifling confines of Harrow. As spring arrives he hires a stranger, Sam Chase, to help with farm chores. Spring gives way to the arrival of summer residents in the title piece, “Pipers at the Gates of Dawn,” in which Dru Hammond wrestles with her growing sense of disconnection from her husband and her concern over the disturbing behavior of her youngest son. In “Indian Summer,” Jack Sayers, a fiercely independent former summer resident now settled in Harrow, tells his college-bound nephew the story of his itinerant life but leaves out something important.
Stegner’s acute and rich writing reveals, in profoundly original ways, the troubled fault-lines of the relationships that constitute each novella. What happens as Chase appears twice more links the novellas in unexpected and powerful ways, giving all three stories, their characters, and the town of Harrow itself a compelling unity that readers will recall long after the book is finished.
Find it at Amazon ❧ Your Local IndieBound bookstore
AWARDS & HONORS for Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
Faulkner Society Gold Medal in the novella category
Reviews
“A gifted writer . . . elegant ideas. . . . beautiful writing . . . ”
—New York Times Book Review
“ . . . richly textured yet finely drawn prose.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe
“In this absorbing triptych of novellas, Stegner dissects with taut prose and decisive narrative moves the complex emotional states of characters. . . . Stegner’s storytelling skills are impressive . . . ”
—Publishers Weekly
“These novellas are marvelously poetic, taut, impeccably observed, nerved everywhere with honest, painful insight.”
—Peter Matthiessen
“A major accomplishment . . . resonates with the depth and clarity of a cathedral bell. In concise and elegant prose, the author conveys an exquisite sense of place, giving readers a captivating you-are-there feeling.”
—Library Journal
“. . . an eloquent fictional evocation of life in New England as Robert Frost and John Cheever would have recognized it. . . . It is an uncommonly fine work of fiction, which moves from the particular to the universal with great artistry.”
—Green Mountain Bookshelf
“This is beautiful writing: the kind that articulates precise emotional complexity in sensuous terms.”
—Booklist