Touch

2013 Longlist

In Sawgamet, a north woods boomtown gone bust, the cold of winter breaks the glass of the schoolhouse thermometer, and the dangers of working in the cuts are overshadowed by the mysteries and magic lurking in the woods. Stephen, a pastor, is at home on the eve of his mother’s funeral, thirty years after the mythic summer his grandfather returned to the town in search of his beloved but long-dead wife. And like his grandfather, Stephen is forced to confront the losses of his past.

Touch introduces you to a world where monsters and witches oppose singing dogs and golden caribou, where the living and the dead part and meet again in the crippling beauty of winter and the surreal haze of summer.

(From Publisher)

About the Author

Alexi Zentner is the winner of the 2008 Narrative Prize, and his fiction has been featured in The Atlantic and Tin House. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his family.

Librarian’s Comments

Leaping across generations, an Anglican priest returns home to be flooded by memories and tall tales, where tragedy tears families a part and monsters inhabit the Canadian wilderness.