A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain

by Adrianne Harun Narrated by Dan Miller

Overview

In isolated British Columbia, girls, mostly native, are vanishing from the sides of a notorious highway. Leo Kreutzer and his four friends are barely touched by these disappearances-until a series of mysterious and troublesome outsiders come to town. Then it seems as if the devil himself has appeared among them.



In this intoxicatingly lush debut novel, Adrianne Harun weaves together folklore, mythology, and elements of magical realism to create a compelling and unsettling portrait of life in a dead-end town. A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain is atmospheric and evocative of place and a group of people, much in the way that Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones conjures the South, or Charles Bock's Beautiful Children provides a glimpse of the Las Vegas underworld: kids left to fend for themselves in a broken world-rendered with grit and poetry in equal measure.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Claire Vaye Watkins

Among Harun's bountiful accomplishments is her depiction of the dirt-poor with honesty, not pity…The book is a local epic, pitting absolutes against each other. And it turns out that good versus evil remains an enthralling mode of storytelling, at least when it's done as well as this. In the contemporary aesthetic that paints, often unthinkingly, in grayscale, Harun's Old Testament sensibility is a vivid standout…readers will be swept away by this breathless, absorbing novel. A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain proves that Harun is heir apparent to Louise Erdrich and Harry Crews. Her characters shimmer and squirm in liminal spaces, nether regions of geography, race, spirituality and aesthetics. This novel is a mesmerizing incantation, harrowing and hypnotic.

Publishers Weekly

11/25/2013
This slick, if overstuffed, first novel from short story writer Harun (The King of Limbo) is an exploration of evils both supernatural and temporal. It seems things couldn’t get any bleaker for teenagers Leo Kreutzer and his friends Bryan, Ursie, Tessa, and Jackie. Drug abuse, poverty, and prejudice hem in their lives in a tiny unnamed Canadian logging town; escape consists of trips to shoot rats at the town dump. But the devil himself appears to have tests in mind for Leo and his friends. One day Kevin Seven, a mysterious musician, and Hana Swann, his girlfriend, come to town; the pair quickly works its way into the friends’ lives. Because the town is terrorized already by Gerald Flacker, a local meth baron, and his henchmen, the Nagle brothers, no one notices the newcomers’ insidious influence until it’s almost too late. Interspersed with the plot are bits of folklore Leo has cribbed from a dying uncle, recounting ominous stories of the devil and his handmaiden. Harun creates a masterfully bleak and spooky mood, and succinctly captures the desperation of the young people’s lives, such as when she describes the “daily weight of disregard” that made them “vibrate with the dual desire to both shake and embrace” everyone they met. While stylishness abounds, the impact of this promising debut is diluted by a too-busy plot and a too-long cast of characters. (Mar.)

From the Publisher

Readers will be swept away by this breathless, absorbing novel….A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain proves that Harun is heir apparent to Louise Erdrich and Harry Crews.... A mesmerizing incantation, harrowing and hypnotic.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“An ingenious tale of myth, magic and murder….told in rich prose….[An] auspicious debut.”
—Seattle Times
“Hypnotic...tantalizing...lush and evocative...Literary and genre lovers alike can find a striking new voice to celebrate in A Man Came Out of A Door in the Mountain.”
—Kansas City Star

“A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain is literary magic of the highest order….It reads with the level care of a finely crafted story…but also with the fresh familiarity of a folksong….A spectacular read.”
—The Vancouver Sun

“Haunting [and] hypnotic.”
—Seattle Magazine

“A dense and mythic coming-of-age allegory, equal parts fanciful and horrifying…Each of Harun’s people is fleshed out with maximum sureness and poetry.”
—Missoula Independent

“In mesmerizing prose, debut novelist Harun spins a chilling tale shot through with both aching realism and age-old folktales, melding them together to capture a landscape lush with possibility and imagination and terrifying in its vast emptiness.”
—Booklist, starred review

“Intertwining with real-world pain and loss, this debut novel gains an extra sense of risk and realism, pitting ordinary, human evil against supernatural wickedness.”
—The Globe and Mail
 
“Much as it does to the novel’s characters, the gothic ambiance wraps around the reader and won’t let go.”
—Library Journal
 
“Harun creates a masterfully bleak and spooky mood, and succinctly captures the desperation of the young people’s lives…[a] promising debut.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“Through a complex narrative structure, Harun [invests] all of her action…with an aura of myth and folk legend.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain is a rich, haunting, original novel that captures evil in many forms—mythic, magic and chillingly real. Adrianne Harun's writing can hold you breathless."
—Jess Walter, author of The Zero and Beautiful Ruins
 
“I have long been a fan of Adrianne Harun's work, and A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain has raised my admiration to new heights. Writing with astonishing vividness, Harun weaves her own myths and magic as she plots her amazing tale.”
—Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

“Adrianne Harun's dark, mysterious novel is by turns Gothic and grittily realistic, astute and poetic in its evocation of evil everywhere.”
—Andrea Barrett, National Book Award Winner and author of Ship Fever and Servants of the Map

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"Harun spins a chilling tale shot through with both aching realism and age-old folktales, melding them together to capture a landscape lush with possibility and imagination and terrifying in its vast emptiness." —Booklist Starred Review

Library Journal - Audio

05/15/2014
Harun's debut novel evokes a folktale that's interspersed with the contemporary-set story of five friends and makes for an excellent audiobook. Leo Kreutzer and his pals, most of them mixed race and outcasts, live in a rural British Columbia mining community with few prospects. The disappearance of young girls in the area is disturbing but seems a less immediate threat to Leo's group than the looming presence of the brutal Nagle brothers and their boss, Gerald Flacker. That is, until strangers come to town, bringing the lurking danger to their attention in a heartbreaking way. Reader Don John Miller does an admirable job narrating the young compatriots, each with an individual voice and sensitivity. VERDICT A strong sense of place permeates the work. Highly recommended for listeners who enjoy the works of Sharyn McCrumb or Louis Erdrich. ["Harun's mastery clearly lies in establishing atmosphere and mood. Much as it does to the novel's characters, the gothic ambiance wraps around the reader and won't let go. Laced with local color, this debut will please fans of the macabre," read the review of the Penguin hc, LJ 1/14.]—Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Library Journal

01/01/2014
In British Columbia, there are still places so remote that the isolation can be suffocating, with few strangers to break the patterns of rural life. Poverty hangs on residents like a mantle, and personal relationships run deep and long. But one simple summer day, things begin to change in a remote logging town. Young women have been disappearing off the highway, and intriguing strangers have come to stay: a man with a magician's touch with cards and a mysterious young woman with pale alabaster skin. Leo Kreutzer and his friends, fresh from school and feeling the new weight of adulthood pressing down, don't quite know what to make of all this. But one thing is sure: by season's end, the small town's population will be even smaller, and those who remain will be forever changed. VERDICT Harun's mastery clearly lies in establishing atmosphere and mood. Much as it does to the novel's characters, the gothic ambiance wraps around the reader and won't let go. Laced with local color, this debut will please fans of the macabre.—Leigh Wright, Bridgewater, NJ

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile

This novel, set in small-town British Columbia, defies categorization; it’s a mystery, with a bit of magical realism and folklore. Narrator Dan John Miller portrays the story’s protagonist, Leo Kreutzer, with compassion, using a soft Canadian accent. Leo’s friend, Kevin Seven, who is new in town, mesmerizes everyone, especially Hanna Swann, another newcomer to town. But soon, evil is set in motion. Miller portrays the well-developed characters sympathetically and makes the imagery that describes the unseen world believable. A slight weakness is that Miller’s female voices sound strained. Aside from that, his performance suits the novel, and listeners will find Leo and his friends engaging. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2014-01-09
The devil is alive and well and living in British Columbia. In a remote section of western Canada, girls have started disappearing, and it's unclear why or who's responsible. Admittedly, there are some egregiously nasty types around, most notably the Nagle brothers, Markus and GF, who tool around in their orange Matador intimidating the local population. And intimidating they are—while they're involved in unseemly activities, they mainly just like being badasses. As Uncle Jud tells it, "[e]verybody's got a mean bone. Some have a full set." Jud is uncle to Leo, one of the narrators of the novel, who likes to hang out with his friends Jackie, Bryan, Ursula ("Ursie") and Tessa, but they're all getting more and more disturbed by the way girls are vanishing near what has become known as the Highway of Tears. All of the friends are in late adolescence and trying to make sense of life in their remote logging town. And then a number of strangers appear, bringing mystery and allure to their lives: Kevin Seven does dazzling card tricks and starts to mentor Ursie, who'd never before even shuffled a deck, while fragile and self-possessed Hana Swann, with preternaturally white skin, calmly tries to convince Bryan of the rationality of getting revenge on Gerald Flacker, a local drug dealer seemingly in league with the devil. Through a complex narrative structure, Harun manages to invest all of her action—slow as it sometimes is—with an aura of myth and folk legend that raises it above the lurid and sensational.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170812912
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/12/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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