NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS - FICTION | show finalists

Shadow Country (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Peter Matthiessen

2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER

Peter Matthiessen’s great American epic–Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone by Bone–was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly a third of the overall text and collapsed the time frame while deepening the insights and motivations of his characters with brilliant rewriting throughout. In Shadow Country, he has marvelously distilled a monumental work, realizing his original vision.

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagine. . . [more]

All Timelines (5)

• Tournament of Books - 2009
• National Book Award Winners - Fiction
• Peter Matthiessen
• The Watson Trilogy
• TIME'S ARROW - What we're reading

Reviews (1)

timesarrow
Every dog has his day. Well I'm 750 pages into the over 800 pages this book offers. In a way I can't believe I've made it. I felt propelled by the prose to keep going. Also the structure kept me engaged since it's a telling of the same story from 3 perspectives. The first is the community of the Everglades that have to live with a quick to violent man, Edgar Watson. The second is Edgar's son, Lucious. The third, Watson himself. I don't like Edgar Watson much, so the last was not my favorite. He's a villain of the first order. If you like historical fiction, I HIGHLY recommend this book. Well written. Interesting. I'm very happy he decided to follow his heart and combine the three previously published book into Shadow Country.