The Twisted Thread: A NovelCharlotte Bacon
Hyperion, June 2011
ISBN: 978-1401341503
With The Twisted Thread, Charlotte Bacon has crafted a gripping and suspenseful story in the tradition of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, one that pulls back the curtain on the lives of the young and privileged.
The Twisted Thread begins with the discovery of a dead girl on the campus of an exclusive private school for high-school age children. Even the description of the body, half-naked and twisted at an unnatural angle, is weirdly clinical, taking the time to philosophize on the American tendency to keep death at arm's length even as it describes the pallor Claire Harkness' dead skin, "the color of a candle."
The cast of characters ranges from teachers and dorm monitors to the police investigating Claire's death to the headmaster of the school and his family. There's no clear suspect, and the early discovery that Claire had a child, only days before her death, only complicates matters. The whereabouts of the baby are unknown, and its birth was a secret closely kept by those who Claire trusted most - those who wore the braided red thread on their wrist.
Though the driving force of the story is the investigation of Claire's death, The Twisted Thread is not really a murder mystery or a police procedural. It's a story about the privilege of the wealthy, the power of secrets, and the persistence of tradition. It's about simplistic illusions reinforced by narrow judgments and the complicated reality that always seeps through eventually. It's a complex story, told through constantly-changing perspectives of the different characters.
The nature of the story naturally keeps the reader at a distance, as if looking in on the fragile and beautiful world inside a glass snowglobe, where the threat of the real world may well shatter the illusion of perfection, and something as simple as a twisted red thread is as likely to strangle as it is to bind. The Twisted Thread is a compelling tale, told in a confident and elegant voice.
CHARLOTTE BACON graduated from Harvard University and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. Her published books include A Private State, Lost Geography, There Is Room for You, and Split Estate. Her debut collection of stories, A Private State, won the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction in 1998. Bacon lives in Maine with her husband and three children.
The cast of characters ranges from teachers and dorm monitors to the police investigating Claire's death to the headmaster of the school and his family. There's no clear suspect, and the early discovery that Claire had a child, only days before her death, only complicates matters. The whereabouts of the baby are unknown, and its birth was a secret closely kept by those who Claire trusted most - those who wore the braided red thread on their wrist.
Though the driving force of the story is the investigation of Claire's death, The Twisted Thread is not really a murder mystery or a police procedural. It's a story about the privilege of the wealthy, the power of secrets, and the persistence of tradition. It's about simplistic illusions reinforced by narrow judgments and the complicated reality that always seeps through eventually. It's a complex story, told through constantly-changing perspectives of the different characters.
The nature of the story naturally keeps the reader at a distance, as if looking in on the fragile and beautiful world inside a glass snowglobe, where the threat of the real world may well shatter the illusion of perfection, and something as simple as a twisted red thread is as likely to strangle as it is to bind. The Twisted Thread is a compelling tale, told in a confident and elegant voice.
CHARLOTTE BACON graduated from Harvard University and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. Her published books include A Private State, Lost Geography, There Is Room for You, and Split Estate. Her debut collection of stories, A Private State, won the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction in 1998. Bacon lives in Maine with her husband and three children.
ISBN: 978-1401341503; ISBN10: 1401341500; Imprint: Voice; On Sale: 6/14/2011; Format: Paperback; Original edition; Pages: 384; $14.99
