When Red Is Black [Import] [Hardcover]

Qiu Xiaolong (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press; Reprint edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569473676
• ISBN-13: 978-1569473672
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,419,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sara Gran is the author of Saturn's Return to New York (2001), Come Closer (2003), Dope (2006), and the forthcoming Claire DeWitt & The City of the Dead (2011), the first in a series of novels featuring private eye Claire DeWitt. Her work has been published in over a dozen countries and as many languages. Her books have been optioned for film by Miramax, Dimension, and Paramount. Born in Brooklyn in 1971, Ms. Gran lived in New York City until 2004. Since then she has traveled widely and lived throughout the US including Miami and New Orleans. She now resides in the state of California. Before making a living as a writer, Ms. Gran had many jobs, primarily with books, working at Manhattan bookstores like Shakespeare & Co, The Strand, and Housing Works, and selling used & rare books on her own.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and wonderful, August 19, 2003

By 

Andrea Buchanan (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Closer: A Novel (Hardcover)

After reading Sara Gran's excellent "Saturn's Return to New York" I couldn't wait to read her latest, "Come Closer." I expected to love it, and I was not disappointed. Her spare style sets the perfect tone for this grown-up ghost story of a modern woman who just might be possessed. The story was absorbing, gripping -- and creepy: although I read it enthusiastically, this was definitely a book I had to put away after dark. Wonderful!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The demon within, November 3, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Closer: A Novel (Hardcover)

An aura of menace gathers around narrator Amanda as strange mood swings and irritating tapping-thumping noises in the walls begin to disrupt her happily married life. Small things gather momentum. She begins fighting with her husband, resumes smoking, goes out drinking after work. The imaginary playmate from her childhood returns. It's quite some time before she realizes the seductive, insistent third voice inside her head (after the initial voice of temptation, and after the sober rejoinder of the voice of reason and resistance) isn`t her own. Or is it?

Gran's ("Saturn's Return to New York") short novel is a fairly straightforward tale of demonic possession, made chillingly delicious by the spare, unadorned voice, quick pace, and subtleties of psychological desire. Amanda's fate is not inevitable; there are ways to counter the demon, but does she have the faith required, or the strength of mind? Does she perhaps prefer to give in? Thoughtful as well as scary, Gran's tale evokes the lonely fears of adulthood.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ... I Want To See Your True Face, October 16, 2006

By 

Daniel Hatadi "crime fiction writer" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Closer (Mass Market Paperback)

A true horror story that doesn't pull punches. It's not about guts and gore, more about the slow loss of control. Buy it so I don't have to buy it for you.