A Town Called Immaculate
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
When bankrupt farmer Ray Marak saves the life of his friend and banker, Josh Werther, neither they nor their neighbours can imagine what the night will bring.
Still traumatised by his time in Vietnam, Ray’s world has shrunk – to the boundaries of his small hometown of Immaculate, and the warmth of his adored family: his young sons Jacob and Ethan, and his wife Renee; Renee, the woman who waited for him during his wartime hell.
But as the snow accumulates, so do the townspeople’s stories, and the suspicions Ray has harboured for years start to resurface, along with his demons. As midnight approaches, and young Jacob vanishes into the deadly storm, Ray realises that Josh’s generosity has been motivated by something more than neighbourly kindness. Snow, it seems, can bury everything but the past; hour by hour, as Christmas Day approaches, Ray Marak begins to lose control. A Town Called Immaculate is a haunting novel about family and fidelity, and the fragility of the things we take for granted
'With its terse emotions, rural dysfunction and sharply comic moments, this suspenseful debut shares midwestern ambience and territory with the Coen brothers’ Fargo. An array of strong characters gives a bright, nervy edge to Anthony’s fresh prose' - James Urquhart, Financial Times
'A commendable debut' - Simon Baker, Literary Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fans of Jan Karon's Mitford novels will best appreciate Anthony's debut, a religious soap opera set one eventful Christmas Eve in the town of Immaculate, Minn. Farmer Ray Marak, a Vietnam vet wounded both in body and spirit, has built a family with his librarian wife, Renee, who years earlier left college in order to care for Ray as well as her widowed father. Given their debts, Renee fears this Christmas will be the last they spend on the farm. Meanwhile, bank manager Josh Werther, who once had a thing for Renee, can't resist the flirtatious advances of a much younger female teller. Aware that a huge snowstorm is bearing down on the community, Father Dimer warns his flock not to venture out on dangerous roads to attend midnight Mass. A series of contrived coincidences, which lead to a dramatic and violent confrontation, may invoke groans from those unable to buy into the author's themes of trial and redemption.
