"an opening sentence worthy of the Noir Hall of Fame...provocative...haunting...deft"--Janet Maslin, New York Times "Engrossing...Norman pulls off a fascinating balancing act here: the literary page-turner that, when it's done, you want to retrace"--The Seattle Times "compelling and satisfying. Howard Norman has written a complex literary novel and a page-turner that's impossible to put down."--Minneapolis Star Tribune "quirky and probing...riveting...sexy"--Washington Post "This latest novel, a strange and tragic love story told with great power and beauty, is a remarkable achievement... Shining through the confusion and madness is Norman's masterly depiction of Sam and Elizabeth's love affair before the murder, showing two people living modest, quiet lives who are redeemed and blessed by having found real love. VERDICT An inspiring and beautiful book; enthusiastically recommended for fans of literary fiction." --Library Journal, STARRED review "Once again Norman (What Is Left the Daughter, 2010) portrays Nova Scotia as a mystical realm, where the dead haunt the living, and time is tidal. The inspiration for this dark, sexy, allusive, and diabolical tale is found in Norman's memoir, I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place (2013), further complicating the novel's eerie investigation into the yin and yang of verisimilitude and aberration."--Booklist, STARRED review "Sweet, elegaic...you'll be richly rewarded."--Washingtonian "a beguiling tale"--Kirkus Reviews "[A] somewhat far-fetched but nonetheless entertaining novel"-- Publishers Weekly
"A nimbus of unknowability lights up this exploration of love, and how we live in the ambiguous context of love, always moving backward and forward, as we do dancing the Lindy.　 Howard Norman has created a very real mystery, in writing a mystery about what we choose to look at as 'very real.'　 It's vivid, haunting, and - as always, with this writer - beautifully and carefully written and unique, it's meaning both elegant and elusive. I greatly admire Howard Norman's writing." --Ann Beattie --