Quinnehtukqut [Paperback]

Joshua Harmon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Set in a region of northern New Hampshire that for several years in the 1830s declared itself an independent nation, Joshua Harmon's debut novel traces the real and imagined travels of Martha Hennessy, a girl wishing for a life beyond her family s farm. In language as varied and musical as the Connecticut River the title invokes, Quinnehtukqut interweaves Martha's story with those of the dreamers and drifters whose lives intersect hers: an American soldier scarred by the first World War, a mythical and murderous tramp seeking lost Indian gold, a man haunted by his memories of Byrd's expeditions to Antarctica, an industrialist longing to become a woodsman, and an old woman forced to leave her home due to the planned flooding of a valley. Elegiac and lyrical, evocative and visionary, Quinnehtukqut reveals how people inhabit place and how place inhabits people through its vivid study of the New England landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Joshua Harmon's haunting novel Quinnehtukqut [is] the most accomplished debut I've read in years.... Here is a whole shelf of books: adventure stories, tearjerker romances, historical curios, post-modern poetry, fairytales. Reading Quinnehtukqut is like dropping a dozen of these books on the sofa next to you...and skipping from book to book, until it gradually dawns on you that that the same current runs through all of them." --Open Letters Monthly

"[A] challenging blend of experimental prose and historical fiction.... There is no shortage of bravura in Harmon's prose." --The Village Voice

"Joshua Harmon has written a wonderful first novel, austere and beautiful, daringly original, and deeply mysterious, like history itself." --David Means --David Means

About the Author

Joshua Harmon was born and raised in Massachusetts. He graduated with highest honors from Marlboro College, and received an MFA from Cornell University. His work has been published in Antioch Review, Iowa Review, New England Review, Southern Review, TriQuarterly, Verse, and many other magazines, and he has received fellowships in fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. He teaches at Vassar College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Starcherone Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978881125
• ISBN-13: 978-0978881122
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,418,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful composite portrait of diverse and colorful personalities, August 6, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quinnehtukqut (Paperback)

Set in the northern area of New Hampshire that once declared itself an independent nation, Quinnehtukqut is a novel about the real and illusory trials facing Martha Hennessy, a girl wishing to experience life past her humdrum family farm. Author and teacher Joshua Harmon weaves together a diverse assembly of characters, from a haunted veteran of World War I to an old woman forced to vacate her home due to the planned flooding of a valley, to an industrialist yearning to become a woodsman. A thoughtful composite portrait of diverse and colorful personalities and their connections to the land itself.