Synopses & Reviews
The sleepy community of Brewster, Rhode Island, is just like any other small American town. Its a place where most of the population will likely die blocks from where they were born; where gossip spreads like wildfire, and the big entertainment on weekends is the inevitable fight at the local bar. But recently, something out of the ordinary perhaps even supernatural has been stirring in Brewster. While packs of coyotes gather on back roads and the news spreads that a baby has been stolen from Memorial Hospital (and replaced in its bassinet by a snake), a series of inexplicably violent acts begins to confound Detective Woody Potter and the local police and inspire terror in the hearts and minds of the locals.
From award-winning author Stephen Dobyns comes a sardonic yet chillingly suspenseful novel: the literary equivalent of a Richard Russo small-town tableau crossed with a Stephen King thriller. The Burn Palace is a darkly funny, twisted portrait of chaos and paranoia, with an impressive host of richly rendered, larger-than-life characters and a thrilling plot that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.
Review
"An utterly believable tale, and Dobyns isn't above scaring the reader silly with surprise twists and turns....Nicely done — and you may never look at doctors the same way again." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Veteran novelist Stephen Dobyns reveals how easily people can get worked up into hysterics about evil they can only imagine, even as they miss the evil right in front of their eyes. Buy it." New York Magazine
Synopsis
From award-winning author Stephen Dobyns comes a sardonic yet chilling literary novel of suspense about a small New England town beset by all manner of inexplicable — and perhaps supernatural — criminal acts.
About the Author
Stephen Dobyns is the author of more than thirty novels and poetry collections, including The Church of the Dead Girls, Cold Dog Soup, and Cemetery Nights. Among his many honors and awards are a Melville Cane Award, Pushcart Prizes, National Poetry Series prize, and three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. His novels have been translated into 20 languages, and his poetry has appeared in the Best American Poems anthology. Dobyns teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College and has taught at the University of Iowa and Sarah Lawrence College.