David Vann - Caribou Island

Los Angeles Times“Powerful far beyond the dimensions of many debut novels...” Vann clearly has gifts for capturing emotional isolation and suffering. But it's his ability to spin a riveting story from these dark materials that is distinctive. Vann's writing is confident — concrete and efficient...

The Telegraph“The style is hard to warm to...” As bleak as the shoreline of the brooding Skilak Lake, with no redemption for its characters and little for them to laugh about as they hurtle towards disaster. But this flawed novel shows writing born of tremendous passion...

The New York Times“Gets to places other novels can’t touch...” All the men in this novel are chasing the unreal. Though it wears the clothes of realism — the beautiful exactness of the language, the unerring eye for detail — it takes us someplace darker, older, more powerful than the daylit world...

The Independent“For once the hype is justified...” There are, in fact, at least seven narrative voices, all of them distinct and convincing. Caribou Island is a bleak book, as bleak as an Alaskan winter, but it also wields an unforgiving, elemental power that is breathtaking to read...

Financial Times“He writes beautifully about the landscape...” This bleak, beautifully written and bitterly funny novel provides, appropriately enough, cold comfort. But at least, unlike the uplift peddled by Palin, one can believe that the person providing it has enough hard-won wisdom...

Publishers Weekly“Earnest but uneven...” Internal monologues rage with ideas and desires that read like authorial conceits, not the thoughts of real people. The only true character is Alaska itself...

Guardian“Not yet reviewed”

The Observer“Not yet reviewed”

The New Yorker“Not yet reviewed”

The Boston Globe“Not yet reviewed”