Afterlands [Import] [Paperback]

Steven Heighton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (April 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141024763
• ISBN-13: 978-0141024769
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that stays with you, April 20, 2006

By 

Dartmouth '96 (Ithica NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterlands: A Novel (Hardcover)

Afterlands is a densely but beautifully written novel. It's not an overnight read or a beach read, yet the main story is so gripping that you feel driven to read it fast, while also savouring the language. The characters are all richly developed and they stay with you after you finish, like the story itself.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A flawless, multi-faceted gem of a book., June 14, 2009

By 

Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterlands: A Novel (Hardcover)

I consistently read upwards of 50 books a year.
Afterlands is definitely the best book I have read so far this year, and I cannot imagine another one being better for me in 2009.
It is now up there in my opinion with the greats, like Alias Grace, and As The Crow Flies, and Libra, and stuff like that.
I don't even know where to start, [a great synopsis of the book is shown, above].
It's really two novels in one. The Arctic episode. The Mexican episode.
After the Arctic portion of it, the author follows the protagonist Roland Kruger into Mexico, and to further adventures so epic in scope that, as I say, it is almost like reading a second novel. Yet all remains so intertwined [woven], so intricately connected to the themes of displacement and alienation, peril and rescue. Love and loss.
Kruger emerges a hero, but not a super-hero.
There is not one aspect of this novel that is flippant. Nothing is under or over cooked. And let's face it, both things can give one indigestion.
It is a thriller, a page-turner, a stay-awaker, but not a potboiler. Because it is based on actual events, it could be considered historical fiction, yet does not have the feel, in any typical sense, of the genre.
The perfect blend of wild invention and bone-numbing reality.

The white bird, an albino vulture, slouches in a niche in the canyon wall, like statuary in a satanic chapel. Its bald gory head is half turned away, as if feigning disinvolvement or anonymity. [p.320]

Come on now!
That is gorgeous, perfect, writing. And the whole entire book is that good. A lyrical, word-perfect gem.
It's a perfect ten of a book and had me riveted from start to finish.
I encourage you one and all, Afterlands cannot disappoint you.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars after Afterlands..., March 10, 2006

By 

Mr. Bark and Hiss (Akron, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterlands: A Novel (Hardcover)

A fantastic story written well.

I was afraid I was going to lose interest after the main plotline seemed to end 2/3rds of the way through and the author had to start inventing his own story a bit more, but it only got better.

Recommended.