The flicker of old dreams : a novel / Susan Henderson.
"With the quiet precision of Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and the technical clarity of Mary Roach’s Stiff, this is a novel about a young woman who comes most alive while working in her father’s mortuary in a small, forgotten Western town. 'The dead come to me vulnerable, sharing their stories and secrets...' Mary Crampton has spent all of her thirty years in Petroleum, a small Western town once supported by a powerful grain company. Living at home, she works as the embalmer in her father’s mortuary: an unlikely job that has long marked her as an outsider. Yet, to Mary there is a satisfying art to positioning and styling each body to capture the essence of a subject’s life. Though some townsfolk pretend that the community is thriving, the truth is that Petroleum is crumbling away -- a process that began twenty years ago when an accident in the grain elevator killed a beloved high school athlete. The mill closed for good, the train no longer stopped in town, and Robert Golden, the victim’s younger brother, was widely blamed for the tragedy and shipped off to live elsewhere. Now, out of the blue, Robert has returned to care for his terminally ill mother. After Mary -- reserved, introspective, and deeply lonely -- strikes up an unlikely friendship with him, shocking the locals, she finally begins to consider what might happen if she dared to leave Petroleum. Set in America’s heartland, The Flicker of Old Dreams explores themes of resilience, redemption, and loyalty in prose as lyrical as it is powerful." -- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780062834072 (library edition hardcover)
- ISBN: 9780062686701 (trade paperback)
- Physical Description: 303 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.
- Copyright: ©2018.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Undertakers and undertaking > Fiction. City and town life > Fiction. Man-woman relationships > Fiction. |
Available copies
- 7 of 7 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
- 1 of 1 copy available at Nakusp Public Library. (Show)
Holds
- 0 current holds with 7 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nakusp Public Library | FIC HEN (Text) | 35160000747353 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Castlegar Public Library | FIC HEN (Text) | 35146002071504 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Grand Forks | FIC HEN (Text) | 35142002700259 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Pouce Coupe Public Library | F HEN (Text) | 35333000354278 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Terrace Public Library | HEN (Text) | 35151001062025 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Tumbler Ridge Public Library | AF HENDE (Text) | TRL23236 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Williams Lake Branch | HEN (Text) | 33923005947464 | General Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
Summary:
"With the quiet precision of Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and the technical clarity of Mary Roach’s Stiff, this is a novel about a young woman who comes most alive while working in her father’s mortuary in a small, forgotten Western town. 'The dead come to me vulnerable, sharing their stories and secrets...' Mary Crampton has spent all of her thirty years in Petroleum, a small Western town once supported by a powerful grain company. Living at home, she works as the embalmer in her father’s mortuary: an unlikely job that has long marked her as an outsider. Yet, to Mary there is a satisfying art to positioning and styling each body to capture the essence of a subject’s life. Though some townsfolk pretend that the community is thriving, the truth is that Petroleum is crumbling away -- a process that began twenty years ago when an accident in the grain elevator killed a beloved high school athlete. The mill closed for good, the train no longer stopped in town, and Robert Golden, the victim’s younger brother, was widely blamed for the tragedy and shipped off to live elsewhere. Now, out of the blue, Robert has returned to care for his terminally ill mother. After Mary -- reserved, introspective, and deeply lonely -- strikes up an unlikely friendship with him, shocking the locals, she finally begins to consider what might happen if she dared to leave Petroleum. Set in America’s heartland, The Flicker of Old Dreams explores themes of resilience, redemption, and loyalty in prose as lyrical as it is powerful." -- Provided by publisher.