The Barrowfields

A Novel

By: Phillip Lewis

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A richly textured coming-of-age story about fathers and sons, home and family, recalling classics by Thomas Wolfe and William Styron, by a powerful new voice in fiction.

Just before Henry Aster's birth, his father - outsized literary ambition and pregnant wife in tow - reluctantly returns to the small Appalachian town in which he was raised and installs his young family in an immense house of iron and glass perched high on the side of a mountain. There, Henry grows up under the writing desk of this fiercely brilliant man. But when tragedy tips his father toward a fearsome unraveling, what was once a young son's reverence is poisoned, and Henry flees, not to return until years later when he, too, must go home again.

Mythic in its sweep and mesmeric in its prose, The Barrowfields is a breathtaking debut about the darker side of devotion, the limits of forgiveness, and the reparative power of shared pasts.

©2017 Phillip Lewis (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Charming, absorbing, and assured.... Lewis evokes his settings beautifully, and his prose is bracingly erudite. This debut has the ability to fully immerse its readers." ( Publishers Weekly)

" The Barrowfields is a stunning debut novel rich in character and place, steeped in literature and music, and fraught with family drama.... With clear echoes of Poe and Wolfe, The Barrowfields also gives a nod to Richard Russo by reflecting an appreciation for the eccentricities of regional characters." ( Shelf Awareness)

"Rich and complex.... Lewis is a master of creating a sense of place." ( Kirkus Reviews)