Harbor Lights
A collection of stories by James Lee Burke
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
A story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella.
****
These eight stories move between the marshlands of the Gulf of Mexico, the sweeping plains of Colorado, and the prisons, saloons, and trailer parks of the South, weaving together quiet acts of love and survival with shocking eruptions of violence and revenge.
Harbor Lights is populated with unforgettable characters, unfolds in lyrical prose, and displays James Lee Burke's singular skills in this masterful anthology.
****
PRAISE FOR JAMES LEE BURKE, THE AWARD-WINNING KING OF SOUTHERN NOIR:
'James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed' Michael Connelly
'A gorgeous prose stylist' Stephen King
'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' Daily Mail
'The greatest crime writer currently at work' Spectator
'The reigning champ of nostalgia noir' New York Times
'Masterly' Sunday Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Burke (Every Cloak Rolled in Blood), best-known for his Edgar-winning Dave Robicheaux mystery series, proves his versatility as a storyteller in this textured collection. The title story revolves around James Broussard, a middle-aged oil and gas engineer in 1942 Louisiana who remains traumatized by his combat duty in WWI France. When Broussard and his young son, Aaron, witness a capsized tanker burning in the Gulf of Mexico, he reports the calamity anonymously without explaining why to Aaron. Later, at a restaurant, two federal agents attempt to intimidate Broussard into keeping silent about the tanker. Instead, he pokes a hornet's nest by telling the local newspaper. In "The Assault," a history professor is outraged after police refuse to investigate his daughter's beating at a bar, which happened while she was drunk. He takes matters into his own hands, and ends up facing a difficult moral choice. Throughout, Burke manages to conjure his characters' worldview in a few artful brushstrokes (Aaron in the title story dreams about "harbor lights that offer sanctuary from a world that breaks everything in us that is beautiful and good"). These impressive stories establish that Burke doesn't need a whodunit plot to catch a reader's attention.
