Dead Heart [Paperback]

Douglas Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1995

'That dumbshit map. I'd been seduced by it. Seduced by its possibilities. That map had brought me here ...That map had been a serious mistake' The map in question is of Australia, stumbled across in a second-hand bookshop by American journalist Nick Hawthorne, en route to another dead-end hack job in Akron, Ohio. Seduced by all that wilderness, all that NOTHING, Nick decides to put his midlife crisis on hold and light out to the ultimate nowheresville - where a chance encounter throws him into a sun-baked orgy of surf, sex and swill, and a nightmare from which there is no escape. 'Douglas Kennedy might never be allowed into Australia again. This is a crazy, compulsive ultimately serious thriller and a bravura fictional debut from one of our best travel writers' Philip Kerr

Editorial Reviews

Review

**'Pulls off that most difficult feat of being hilariously funny and frightening at the same time' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY **'Fluent and entertaining ... a highly accomplished debut' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH **'His story-telling is so deft, and the build-up so detailed and convincing, that the denouement proves to be heart-thumpingly effective' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY **'A comic triumph' TIME OUT

About the Author

Douglas Kennedy is the author of THE BIG PICTURE, THE JOB and three travel books, BEYOND THE PYRAMIDS, IN GOD'S COUNTRY and CHASING MAMMON. Born in New York City in 1955, he lives in London with his wife and two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Abacus Books (April 13, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0349106452
• ISBN-13: 978-0349106458
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Douglas Kennedy is the author of ten novels, including the international bestseller Leaving the World and The Moment. His work has been translated into 22 languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born in Manhattan, he now has homes in London, Paris, and Maine, and has two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent fast read..., January 19, 2006

By 

Barbara "WildWiseWoman" (MARIETTA, GA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead Heart (Paperback)

This is a short, dark-as-they-get, comic novel which rips along at a furious pace. I was careful not to read too much about it, as I hate spoilers, so I also will not tell you very much about the story. I'd really enjoyed a couple of Doug Kennedy's other books, so I trusted him and was not disappointed. His descriptive prose is spot-on and his energy infectious. The book is a 1st person account of a "facing midlife" crisis which goes weirdly, wackily, wombatily awry. One of the backcover reviews of my British edition said, "If you read this on your way to Australia, you won't want to get off the plane."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, witty, scary... a book like no other, December 22, 2007

By 

Flore G-K "croissantauvergnat" (Etats-Unis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Heart (Paperback)

I discovered Douglas Kennedy thanks to "In God's Country". Curious to read more about him and his writing, I decided to go for his very first novel. I was not disappointed one bit! This book is so grabbing that it is almost impossible to put down once you've started reading it. Sorry I will not say much about the story (I do not want to spoil it). Just know that you will travel alongside this guy who is kind of looking for something missing in his life and that his trip to Australia will take a turn that no one could have predicted. It starts for the better before getting close to the worst.
The writing is speedy and humorous before getting dark and somewhat scary. A great great great book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Grand Adventure and Mystery in the Australian Outback, July 24, 2007

By 

Wanderer (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Heart (Paperback)

Set in the modern Australian outback, this novel is a real grabber. A traveler picks up a young woman hitchhiker, and she takes him to a very strange town, from which he cannot leave. A great adventure and highly recommended.

I would also highly recommend the other two Douglas Kennedy novels I have read--"The Job" and especially "The Big Picture" (I stayed up to two o'clock reading this story of a lawyer who kills his neighbor, takes over the man's identity, and disappears, starting a new life with the man's trust-fund checks).

The Big Picture