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Loading... The Darkby Claire Mulligan
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Extremely well researched and uncommonly strong in use of colloquial language of the period and location; thorough look at culture from the period surrounding the concept of "Good Death", and desire to connect with the dearly departed; unfolds among interesting contemporary popular culture and events such as the Franklin Expedition, the Civil War, the Second Great Awakening, Women's Suffrage and the Temperance Movement; as much character & relationship-driven as plot-driven. Not a fast read, but well-written; requires faith in both the author and the premise of the story to wade through the early chapters, which are a bit slow-moving. ( ) no reviews | add a review
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In the deep of winter 1893, a briskly practical physician named Mrs. Mellon arrives at a New York tenement and takes up her duty to care for the aged, the indigent and the dying. Her patient in the garret, she decides, fits all three categories nicely -- that is, before she realizes she is in the presence of a most unusual lost soul: the charismatic Maggie Fox. Part mystery, part ghost story, part riveting historical fiction, The Dark ushers the reader into the shadowy border between longing and belief as it unfolds the incredible story of the famous and controversial Fox Sisters, Maggie, Katie, and Leah. In their heyday, the sisters purported to communicate with ghosts and inspired the Spiritualist Movement, a quasi-religion complete with mediums and séances and millions of followers. Now only Maggie is left alive, and Mrs Mellon is her lifeline to the world. Soon, with Mrs Mellon's gentle prompting, the wry, black-witted, ever-ambivalent Maggie is revealing her family's secrets. But is Mrs. Mellon her confessor, her saviour, her interrogator -- or the last person upon whom Maggie is working her finely honed art? No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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