The darkness of the body

Plante, David

CAPE.

An original and radiant novel about grief, obsession, and the need for meaning from the author of The Family, a finalist for the National Book Award.When his young son dies in a freak accident, Gerard struggles to find a reason in the smallest of details, including the scrap of paper containing the Sanskrit alphabet that is found at the site. Latching on to this final “clue,” he delves into the origins of Indo-European alphabets, his fascination taking him to England, Greece, and finally, to an ancient site in the Syrian desert where the alphabet was born some 4000 years ago. Along the way he meets other grieving parents, who accompany him on a journey that extends beyond historical knowledge and right into the heart of love and loss.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Anchor

The Age of Terror: A Novel

Set in the seamy world of the Russian sex slave trade, The Age of Terror is the harrowing story of Joe, a disillusioned young American expatriate and lapsed Catholic who searches for life's meaning in the Soviet Union on the eve of its disintegration. Plante plays brilliantly with our assumptions of both the United States and Russia, and ultimately proclaims a universal theme of sacredness and redemption.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

St.Martin's Press

Set in the seamy world of the Russian sex slave trade, The Age of Terror is the harrowing story of Joe, a disillusioned young American expatriate and lapsed Catholic who searches for life's meaning in the Soviet Union on the eve of its disintegration. Plante plays brilliantly with our assumptions of both the United States and Russia, and ultimately proclaims a universal theme of sacredness and redemption.

St. Martin's: Griffin

The ghost of Henry James

Macdonald Co.

Reena and Jim Francoeur and their seven sons live in a small French-Canadian parish in New England and experience frustrations and events that have a devastating impact on their efforts to stay together as a family

The Family

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

From the critically acclaimed author of more than a dozen novels comes a luminous and haunting story about grief and obsession, and about the need for meaning at the center of all of our lives. In ABC’s unforgettable opening scene, Gerard, Peggy, and their 6-year-old son Harry are canoeing in a New Hampshire cove and come upon an abandoned wreck of a house they have observed for years but never entered. When Harry presses his parents to let him go and explore, Gerard follows him in and watches in horror as a freak accident he is powerless to stop unfolds before him, and a summer family idyll becomes, in an incalculable instant, the beginning of unbearable anguish. Moments before Harry died, Gerard had picked up a crumpled piece of paper with letters of an unknown alphabet, which he later learns is Sanskrit. In the weeks following the accident he becomes obsessed with the origins of Indo-European alphabets, his fascination growing as boundless as his grief--and soon taking its place. Now, in pursuit of the story of the alphabet, he leaves his home, Peggy, his teaching job, and bands together with other grief-stricken “abecedarians” who believe that the alphabet as we know it had in its origins a meaning they are intent on uncovering. Their quest takes them to England, Greece, and finally, to an ancient site in the Syrian desert where the alphabet was incised on clay tablets some 4000 years ago. Yet what Gerard seeks is something beyond historical knowledge, and his journey itself has a meaning only revealed to him at its end. A signally original and radiant novel, ABC illuminates the mysteries human life is full of, both in its horror and its joy.

ABC: A Novel

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Pantheon

An alienated American spending his junior year abroad at a Catholic university in Belgium finds himself ensnared in a spiritual struggle that takes him to Spain with some troubled compatriots

The Accident : A Novel

United States

Ticknor & Fields

A search throughout Europe for an unknown Renaissance painting of the Annunciation provides the focus for the intertwining destinies of Claire, an artist; her daughter Rachel, who has been raped; and Claude, an editor of art books.

Annunciation

Set in Boston in the sixties, Daniel Francoeur is featured in this exploration of Catholicism and sexual obsession and of the conflicting demands and constraints they impose

The Catholic

Plume

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Plante, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Plante, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Plante, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The darkness of the body

ABC

The Age of Terror: A Novel

The Age of Terror: A Novel

The ghost of Henry James

The Family

ABC: A Novel

The Accident : A Novel

Annunciation

The Catholic