The most poetic and powerful of Irving's work to date...Though the book is too subtle and gentle to trum-pet itself as Irving's Great American Novel, the story of Dominic and Daniel, as they leave their past behind...is none the less the story of the United States itself...That history--the fall of Saigon, 9/11--plays out on TV sets in the background to major events in the novel's own twisted tale is merely Irving, at his most masterly,making metaphorical mischief...Irving is also, perhaps, the only modern American writer able to seamlessly merge the small detail with the significant event, while writing books that balance literary authority with massmarket appeal...For all its loss, sadness, change and uncertainty, Twisted River is, fhen,like all Irving's best works, the sound of hope echoing gently against the madness of modern life.

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives,forced to run from Coos County--to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto--pursued by the implacable constable.Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades,Last Night in Twisted River depicts the recent half-century in the United States as "a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course."What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author's unmistakable voice--the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller.

I.COOS COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE,1954

CHAPTER 1. UNDER THE LOGS

CHAPTER 2, DO-SI-DO

CHAPTER 3. A WORLD OF ACCIDENTS

CHAPTER 4. THE EIGHT-INCH CAST-IRON SKILLET

II.BOSTON,1967

CHAPTER 5. NOMDEPLUME

CHAPTER 6. IN MEDIAS RES

III.WINDHAM COUNTY, VERMONT,1983

CHAPTER 7. BENEVENTOANDAVELLINO

CHAPTER 8. DEAD DOG; REMEMBERING MAO'S

CHAPTER 9. THE FRAGILE, UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF THINGS

CHAPTER 10. LADY SKY

CHAPTER 11. HONEY

IV.TORONTO,2000

CHAPTER 12. THE BLUE MUSTANG

CHAPTER 13. KISSES OF WOLVES

V.COOS COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE,2001

CHAPTER 14. KETCHUM'S LEFT HAND

CHAPTER 15. MOOSE DANCING

VI.POINTE AU BARIL STATION, ONTARIO,2005

CHAPTER 16. LOSTNATION

CHAPTER 17. KETCHUMEXCEPTED

Ae KNOWLEDGMENTS

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