The Hanging Tree: A Novel [Hardcover]

David Lambkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

"A page-turning puzzler filled with suspense and a richly evoked sense of the African landscape". Publishers Weekly

"Heart of Darkness from a woman's point of view". Kirkus Reviews

A bestseller in South Africa, The Hanging Tree is a compelling piece of literary fiction that raises disturbing questions about love and jealousy, human cruelty, and sexual obsession. David Lambkin exhibits a profound knowledge of Africa's landscape, animals, and myths.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This literary thriller, a bestseller in the author's native South Africa, combines mysticism and modern science in a quest for fossils in Kenya that leads to death on the veldt. The expedition led by paleontologist Kathryn Widd to examine an ancient skull soon begins to echo fatefully the ill-fated 1908 expedition of John Henry Patterson to the same area. Discoveries that raise troubling questions about man's more violent tendencies also lead the researchers into the realms of black magic, quantum physics, and the darker reaches of the human soul.

From Publishers Weekly

Magic and science, past and present, collide in Lambkin's fast-paced thriller, which was a bestseller in South Africa. Kathryn Widd, a paleontologist specializing in violence, goes to Kenya to examine an ancient skull and gets involved in a mystery surrounding a death that occurred on a 1908 expedition, led by John Henry Patterson, to the same locale. From her office in present-day Johannesburg, she recounts the tale of her expedition in a foreboding tone. Accompanied by researcher Ray Chinta, museum administrator Victor Macmillan and his beautiful and enigmatic wife, Marion, Widd makes historic discoveries among the fossils that lend disturbing insight into the origins of human violence. But as the expedition continues, the party begins to relive events that occurred during the ill-fated Patterson expedition. Soon, they find their research straying from the exactitude of science into the realm of magic and mysticism. Looking for metaphysical heft, Lambkin juxtaposes scientific theory with black magic, quantum physics and Bach and uses the metaphor of a fugue to add layers of depth. He falls short of illuminating the implied connections among his many competing themes, and his characterizations rarely rise above stereotype. He does, however, deliver a page-turning puzzler filled with suspense and a richly evoked sense of the African landscape.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 385 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178198
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178198
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,940,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An historical, literary mystery providing food for thought, January 1, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hanging Tree (Paperback)

I agree with those who felt that some characters were underdeveloped--especially Chinta. That said, I found this book gripping. Kathryn Widd is a complex hero of unusual intelligence, and the author has no difficulty developing her thoroughly. Although I have a B.A. in anthropology, I felt no desire for more technical information on paleoanthropology. I find the current focus on accuracy in fiction annoying. Give us more good stories and believeable characters--technical authenticity be damned. This book gave me what I want in a novel: a believeable, fascinating protagonist and a gripping plot to maintain my interest. I look forward to Lambkin's next effort!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and thought provoking, April 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hanging Tree: A Novel (Hardcover)

I purchased this book on a whim, certain that it would be interesting but weighty and a slow read. Imagine my surprise when I literally could not put it down. I flew through it in two days, losing plenty of sleep and completely enthralled. It is a beautiful piece of work; thought provoking while maintaining a dramatic plot line. While it would have been interesting to have seen more deeply into the hearts of characters like Chinta and Sister Mary, their very vagueness created a sketch-like effect, allowing me to shape their motives to my own perception of the story. The combination of references to quantum physics and quotes from ancient curses lead me effectively down the disparate paths of pragmatism and mysticism. Kathryn and Tregallion were extravagantly romantic without being maudlin and created a beautifully tragic love story. This is a wonderful book and has become one of my deep dark favorites.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The cover got to me, June 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hanging Tree (Paperback)

When I saw the cover art of this book, it both repelled me and compelled me to read it. The artwork set the mood before I even started reading, but the story carried it on, page after page of a sense of dread, disaster, and blood.

The main character, Kathryn, intensified this foreboding with her cautious, regretful, and grave telling of the events that befell her group during their paleontological quest in Africa. The story, despite its presentiment of doom, was beautiful in its descriptions of the African environment, and its insights into human thought and feelings. The author came up with some imagery created by unusual metaphores that delighted me. I was impressed by his knowledge of how a woman feels inside her body, and his many insights into the complex workings of the human mind as it tries to sort out its deeper questions.

As Kathryn dealt with the problems of relationships, and the difficulties of her expedition, her main quest was to discover the source of the murderous evil that exists in humans. Her discovery of ancient fossils provides her team with disheartening answers, yet through all this gloom, Kathryn demonstrates the human ability to resurface, blooming, through the ashes of disaster. The mesmerizing, insightful qualilty of this book is what led me to rate it 5 stars.