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Adult Books - Fiction - General Fiction
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Garner.
Allio, Kirstin (author).
Sept. 2005. 232p. Coffee House, paperback, $14.95 (1-56689-175-2).
REVIEW.
First published September 1, 2005 (Booklist).
Allio’s first novel is a shockingly beautiful work about the clash of age and youth, experience and purity, and urban and rural life in 1920s New Hampshire. With farming less lucrative than in the past, the Giddens family makes the controversial decision to take in summer boarders. The farm draws wealthy, young, and overconfident New Yorkers, and the Puritan town of Garner shakes its collective head. Through Allio’s stunning prose, the tension of this situation is tangible and thrilling, even more so due to the knowledge, presented in the opening pages, that young Frances Giddens will turn up dead. As the story focuses alternately on various characters fascinated with the elusive Frances--from a lonely female boarder to the town’s curious postman--we learn about the complexity of Garner. And this farming town proves to be the novel’s strongest character. Against the haunting backdrop of an ancient forest, Garner is still stinging from the Civil War, a dwindling population, and rapidly changing times, and its conflicts make for an alluring and unforgettable novel. — Annie Tully
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