Hearts in Atlantis - Tapa dura

Accomplished...unputdownable...his mesmerising best Robert McCrum, OBSERVER on BAG OF BONES 'Astonishingly good...honourable, deeply felt and almost wonderful' - Independent 'One of the most impressive books of fiction published this year' - Locus An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing, like Truman Capote's, is so fluid that you often forget that you're reading GUARDIAN 'Page after page, a truly mature King does everything right and deserves some kind of literary rosette. His masterpiece.' - KIRKUS REVIEWS Splendid entertainment...Stephen King is one of those natural storytellers Frances Fyfield, EXPRESS As a storyteller King is unbeatable MIRROR 'Seductive...artful tales...the title story rivals his best work' - Publishers Weekly 'King just gets better! ...this is much more than just another shocker' - Cosmopolitan Will make perfect holiday reading DAILY MAIL Gripping...no King fan will walk away unsatisfied THE TIMES 'A writer of excellence...King is one of the most fertile story-tellers of the modern novel...brilliantly done' Marcel Berlins, The Sunday Times Fans of King will find themselves on pleasingly familiar ground here; newcomers (if there are still any left) will find BAG OF BONES as good a place to start as any SUNDAY TIMES Confident, seamlessly accomplished Jonathan Keates, OBSERVER It chills as it creaks as it reads MAIL ON SUNDAY

Taking its cue from the fractured times it describes between 1960 and today, each beautifully interwoven tale is deeply rooted in the sixties, each is haunted by the Vietnam war. This is a book about a group of peers from small-town Harwich, Connecticut: in 1960, there's a newcomer to the town, who introduces Bobby Garfield to the joy of reading and the horrors of 'low men in yellow coats'; by 1966, it's bellbottom pants, pot, patchouli and peace-signs and at Maine University, Pete, who has fallen victim to the addictive game of 'hearts in Atlantis', will learn a lesson in humanity; by 1983, 'Nam vet 'Blind Willie' is paying penance; in 1999, there are reunions, funerals, and the eternal questions - 'why we're in Vietnam'; a year later, Bobby comes home to where his heart is, where the past is always present, as 'Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling'.