The Lighthouse - by Alison Moore (Paperback)

About the Book

In this Booker-Prize-nominated novel, one man's contemplative walk through the German countryside has sinister and shocking consequences.

Book Synopsis

Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heads to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. During his circular walk along the Rhine, he contemplates the formative moments of his childhood. At the end of the week, Futh returns to what he sees as the sanctuary of his hotel, unaware of the events which have been unfolding there in his absence.

Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards, winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants (Biblioasis, 2015), were Observer Books of the Year. A third novel, Death and the Seaside, is forthcoming in the US from Biblioasis. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies and is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Moore lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border with her husband and son.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR ALISON MOORE

"[The Lighthouse's] taut sentences vibrate with tension ... Moore constructs a precise and perfectly paced psychological drama in which all our senses are on constant alert ... This elegant novel leaves a haunting scent of camphor in the air."--Susan Wyndham, New York Times Book Review

"As the parallel stories unpack these two [protagonists'] respective pasts, talismans of memory seem to uncannily connect them: Venus flytraps, the smell of a certain perfume, replica lighthouses that both keep as protective charms. Ms. Moore has written a short, bleak, atmospheric book full of such strange symbols that, in the murk of Futh's confusion, suddenly come aglow with meaning."--Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"Starkly written and suspenseful, this novel ... is a slow burn of jealousy, anger, and anxiety that reads like a drama peeked at through a crack in a door. Moore's prose is sharp and often sparse, while her characters are loathsome and sympathetic by turns. Complex and thrilling, this meditation on the past is a gripping story of betrayal and its lingering effects."--Kirkus Reviews

"Mooe's deceptively simple style perfectly suits this tale of memory, sadness, and self-doubt ... [A] satisfying, mysterious novel."--Publishers Weekly

"The Lighthouse is a powerfully poetic and moving study of loss, grief, and abandonment..."--New York Journal of Books

"Moore's triumph is that she manages to thread the needle, creating a haunting, elegiac book that is very hard to put down. Readers will most likely finish The Lighthouse quickly; its images will remain with them long after."--Shelf-Awareness

"Melancholy and haunting."--Margaret Drabble

"Disquieting, deceptive, crafted with a sly and measured expertise, Alison Moore's story could certainly deliver a masterclass in slow-burn storytelling."--The Independent

"The Lighthouse is a page turner ... we're immersed in a chilly, heart-wrenching story that seems to say that, for all our obsessions with old wounds and childhood hurts, the thing that damages us most of all is the thing of which we are unaware."--The Guardian

"A unique, compelling, deftly crafted novel that reveals author Alison Moore's genuine flair for creating memorable characters and an unpredictable and consistently engaging storyline, The Lighthouse is unreservedly recommended"--Wisconsin Bookwatch

"Moore's writing has a superb sense of the weight of memory."--Kate Saunders, The Times

About the Author

Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year. A third novel, Death and the Seaside, is forthcoming in the US from Biblioasis. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies and is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Born in Manchester in 1971, Alison lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border with her husband and son.