The scapegoat : a novel / Sara Davis.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021Edition: First editionDescription: 210 pages ; 22 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780374181451
- 0374181454
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Dr. James Carlson Library | Mystery | DAVIS, SARA | Available | 33111009796216 | ||||
|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Mystery | DAVIS, SARA | Available | 33111010484919 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
" The Scapegoat is a novel of disquiet and disturbance, with an atmosphere of perfect dread. Think Patricia Highsmith or Jim Thompson, that blend of menace and brilliance. Sara Davis had me shivering. This is the debut novel of a marvelous new talent." --Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling
N is employed at a prestigious California university, where he has distinguished himself as an aloof and somewhat eccentric presence. His meticulous, ordered life is violently disrupted by the death of his estranged father--unanticipated and, as it increasingly seems to N, surrounded by murky circumstances. His investigation leads him to a hotel built over a former Spanish mission, a site with a dark power and secrets all its own. On campus, a chance meeting with a young doctor provokes uncomfortable feelings on the direction of his life, and N begins to have vivid, almost hallucinatory daydreams about the year he spent in Ottawa, and a shameful episode from his past.
Meanwhile, a shadowy group of fringe academics surfaces in relation to his father's death. Their preoccupation with a grim chapter in California's history runs like a surreal parallel to the staid world of academic life, where N's relations with his colleagues grow more and more hostile. As he comes closer to the heart of the mystery, his ability to distinguish between delusion and reality begins to erode, and he is forced to confront disturbing truths about himself: his irrational antagonism toward a young female graduate student, certain libidinal impulses, and a capacity for violence. Is he the author of his own investigation? Or is he the unwitting puppet of a larger conspiracy?
With this inventive, devilish debut, saturated with unexpected wit and romanticism, Sara Davis probes the borders between reality and delusion, intimacy and solitude, revenge and justice. The Scapegoat exposes the surreal lingering behind the mundane, the forgotten history underfoot, and the insanity just around the corner.
"A literary mystery, following a man who works at a Northern Californian university as he investigates the death of his father"-- Provided by publisher.
N is employed at a prestigious California university, where he has distinguished himself as an aloof and somewhat eccentric presence. His meticulous, ordered life is violently disrupted by the death of his estranged father-- unanticipated and, as it increasingly seems to N, surrounded by murky circumstances. After a chance meeting with a young doctor, N begins to have vivid, almost hallucinatory daydreams about the year he spent in Ottawa, and a shameful episode from his past. As a shadowy group of fringe academics becomes preoccupied with a grim chapter in California's history, N's relations with his colleagues grow more and more hostile, and his ability to distinguish between delusion and reality begins to erode. Is he the author of his own investigation? Or is he the unwitting puppet of a larger conspiracy?