The Kept - Tapa blanda

“Scott is a master of mood... This landscape is more mythic than historic, and Scott’s characters are dark brush strokes of appetite and deceit. His central concern, as a storyteller, is the dynamic of consequence.” (New York Times Book Review)

“[A] bravura debut....It is a testament to the author’s artisan-like control that he is able to tease us with Elspeth’s crimes from the outset and yet keep the terrible measure of her dereliction at bay until the final clinch, as breathless as it is inevitable.” (Boston Globe)

“Graceful...unsettling...The Kept is a novel where most everyone harbors dark secrets and most characters are not who they appear to be.” (USA Today)

“Dark and mysterious... A novel whose daring is found in its bleakness... The plot unfolds with a weighty languor reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy... sparse, elegant... haunting.” (New York Times)

“Quite an impressive debut novel...James Scott’s descriptions of nature and his ability to reveal two complex, tormented people are what make the book live and even sing, albeit a mournful, heartbroken music.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

“The Kept starts out as a straightforward revenge narrative, then slowly deepens into something much more mysterious and compelling. James Scott has written a riveting and memorable debut novel.” ( Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers )

“With its vivid sense of time and place, lyrical writing, and complex questions of what constitutes a family, The Kept is an outstanding debut by a bright new voice in American fiction.” ( Ron Rash, author of Nothing Gold Can Stay )

“The Kept is a deeply moving, disconcerting novel... Scott manages something quite difficult here, balancing both terror and tenderness with apparent ease. By the end of the book, you’ll be convinced that he can do just about anything.” (Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang)

“The Kept is a brutal and beautiful novel. Written with emotional ascendancy, these rock-ribbed characters illuminate loss, desire, and love. James Scott’s debut is a celebration of bracing action, evocative rendering of the past, and literary precision.” ( Julianna Baggott, author of Girl Talk and Pure )

“The Kept is both a thrilling adventure and a literary triumph. Following the journey of a mother and son who lose everything, only to find each other, James Scott’s haunting tale will astonish and enchant you, the words echoing long after the final pages have turned.” ( Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief )

With shades of Charles Portis, Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor, this is a gothic western transferred to the ice-locked wilds of upstate New York at the turn of the 20th century; a brutal and searing debut novel about a mother's obsession and a son's search for answers in the wake of a terrible and violent tragedy.

In the winter of 1897, midwife Elspeth Howell returns to her isolated farmstead to find her husband and four of her five children murdered. Before she discovers her remaining son, Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, she is shot.

Caleb nurses his mother back to health, cleaning her wounds and keeping her fed, before he and Elspeth leave their home to seek retribution from the men who committed this heinous crime. As they travel from country to town to hunt the murderers, the reader learns of Elspeth's deep secret-that she kidnapped the very children who call her mother-and questions her role in the novel's initial violence. Meanwhile Caleb is confronted with the ways of a world he's never known. The line between justice and vengeance is thrown into question as Caleb and Elspeth are forced to reconsider their relationship and what unknown future lies ahead for both of them.

The Kept is a portrait of both maternal obsessions and a primal adolescence in a brutal world. Fans of True Grit's Mattie Ross and All the Pretty Horses's Jimmy Blevins will love Caleb Howell, the next great old-beyond-his-years protaganist of an unforgettable literary Western-this time set in the icy wilderness of the East Coast.