Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Crime & mystery fiction

KNIFE RIVER

Justine Champine

An atmospheric literary suspense novel.

A woman returns to her hometown when her mother's remains are discovered more than fifteen years after her disappearance in this page-turning excavation of the burden of doubt, the slipperiness of memory, and the many forms of love.

Justine Champine is the founding staff member of No Tokens Journal and organizer on the NYC Dyke March Committee. We have a second novel scheduled for January 2025.

Available products
Book Published 2024-05-28 by The Dial Press
Book Published 2024-05-28 by The Dial Press

Comments

Knife River is an intelligent literary mystery with a rich sense of place and a clever plot; but it is Champine's keenly-observed depiction of the aftermath of tragedy and the corrosive impact of loss that sets this novel apart.

To say Justine Champine is an original would be a dramatic understatement. With the wry, crackling humor of Sally Rooney and Otessa Moshfegh, and a grip on the darkest, prickliest corners of consciousness, Champine will be read and championed as one of the greats, a Gaitskill of this generation, though completely singular in vision, skill, and the oneiric atmosphere of her stories. I've been waiting a decade for Champine's debut, and I'm thrilled it's here in Knife River, with all of her magic tricks on display. Champine writes dykes, outsiders, and desire like no one else; her work is a discovery, a marvel, a transcendence.

Beautifully written, gripping and poignant, Knife River is a moving debut about love, women and buried secrets.

Intimately engrossing. Champine superbly combines the sisters' investigation with a thoughtful look at family bonds. As Jess and Liz begin to appreciate each other while dealing with their mutual grief, Champine's depiction of their evolving mental health and the impact of their mother's shadow elevates this tense and gripping novel.

Knife River is a gorgeous, magnetic portrait of two sisters whose lives are shattered by the loss of their mother. Part mystery, part investigation into the nature of loss, this novel is both startlingly beautiful and unputdownable. Justine Champine has written a knockout debut.

A delicious smoke curl of a novel: atmospheric, sharp, and skilled at twisting the reader's guesses in unimaginable ways.

A twisting, engrossing and beautiful mystery. Thrilling, yet also deeply moving, layered and powerful.

Knife River is a twisty, intoxicating book. The beating heart of it is raw and tender, full of guilt and heartache and hope. It's a genuine and unsettling look at how loss can divide a family, but it's also a story about the long and difficult ways we finally make our way back home. Justine Champine is a very gifted writer and readers are going to be hooked on Knife River.

UK/BC: Bonnier Books

Compelling. Read more...