The Lightning Keeper

by Starling Lawrence

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The Lightning Keeper is a sweeping, epic novel of ambition, love, and enterprise in America. It is the story of an unlikely Romeo and Juliet romance at the dawn of the electric age, with the nation balancing on the brink of world war and a scientific revolution. In 1914, Toma Pekocevic is a penniless immigrant in New York, recently escaped from the bloody politics of the Balkans that have claimed most of his family. He is also a gifted inventor who designs a revolutionary water turbine while show more working with Harriet Bigelow, scion of a proud Connecticut iron-making dynasty now fallen on hard times. Their attraction is immediate and overwhelming, but every circumstance is against them. Toma is eventually drawn inside the industrial empire of General Electric, his machine an essential cog in its grand scheme to provide electricity to the entire country. His invention is all he has after losing Harriet to a wealthy politician, but Toma is determined to win her back, setting the stage for a confrontation that could change not only his life but the course of scientific progress. Deeply evocative and utterly engrossing, The Lightning Keeper is a rich tapestry of technology, romance, and war -- an unforgettable and distinctly American saga that establishes Starling Lawrence as one of the most talented writers at work today. Performed by Terence Aselford. show less

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Author Information

4+ Works 347 Members
Starling Lawrence is the editor-in-chief at the W.W. Norton publishing company. After many years as an editor, he had a chance to see the publishing business from a different perspective, when he became a published author in 1996. Legacies is a collection of short stories, each focusing on an illuminating moment or event that changes the course of show more a character's life. Legacies was followed by Montenegro, a historical novel set in the Balkans, when Montenegro was a small but independent principality. A combination espionage thriller and love story, Montenegro takes place in 1908, against the formation of the "Black Hand", a Serb terrorist group that was responsible for the 1914 murder of the Austrian archduke in Sarajevo, an event that precipitated World War I. Lawrence has received The Sewanee Review's Lytle Prize and the Virginia Quarterly Review's Balch prize for his fiction. He lives in New York City. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Common Knowledge

Canonical title
The Lightning Keeper
Original publication date
2006-03
People/Characters
Toma Pekocevic; Harriet Bigelow
Important places
New York, New York, USA
Important events
World War I

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PS3562 .A9155 .L54Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1961-
BISAC

Statistics

Members
155
Popularity
211,207
Reviews
1
Rating
½ (3.26)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
11
ASINs
4