Angels Crest

Name: Angels Crest
Brand: Penguin Random House
Availability: InStock
Author: Leslie Schwartz
ISBN: 9781415912874

Author: Leslie Schwartz

Narrator: Susan Denaker

Unabridged: 11 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Random House Audio

Published: 04/14/2004

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

It only takes a moment for a life to change forever.

Ethan Denton is a lucky man. Most things have gone his way, and being granted full custody of Nate, his young son and “North Star,” has given him a near-perfect life. On a crisp winter morning just before the start of deer season, Ethan and Nate set off together to discover the beauties of the forest. As he parks the truck, Ethan spots a pair of magnificent bucks, and, eager to take a closer look, leaves Nate asleep in the car seat, a brief, impulsive decision any parent might make. When he returns only a few minutes later, the door of the truck is open and Nate is nowhere to be seen.

As an unexpected blizzard blankets the woods, Ethan searches for the missing three-year-old with the help of other townspeople: Ethan’s ex-wife and his ex-best friend; an older Jewish judge, whose concern and involvement is colored by recent problems with his own son; a middle-aged lesbian couple; and others touched by the crisis. Nate’s disappearance brings up past wounds for everyone, but also miraculously provides the chance for love and redemption as they struggle to make sense of the inexplicable.

ANGEL’S CREST is a beautifully wrought work, a seamless blend of dramatic suspense and emotional truth.

About The Author

LESLIE SCHWARTZ is the author of Jumping the Green, which won the James Jones Literary Society Award for Best First Novel. Her short stories have appeared in dozens of literary journals, and her nonfiction has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Shape, Self, and other magazines and newspapers. She teaches fiction writing at UCLA Extension and poetry to at-risk high school students through PEN in the Classroom. She is also a mentor for young writers through PEN’s Emerging Voices fellowship program. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

Goodreads review by A B on February 12, 2015

"Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding" - Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta If you have no clue what that was, then Youtube that right now because it's a freaking awesome song. And the one-liner really summarizes this book quite well. In a miserable but picturesque northern......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on June 20, 2011

I absolutely adored this book. Its one of my alltime favourites. Its very heartbreaking in parts. All i have to say is if you havent read this Go Get it Now.......more

Goodreads review by Tyler on February 09, 2017

Having found the movie version interesting, I thought I should read the book. It had a strong enough start - I felt able to connect to the characters, initially, and thought we were getting some good depth going. Then everything plateaued and became one of the most repetitive books I've ever read. T......more

Goodreads review by Gloria on January 16, 2012

Book was recommended by a library publication as one with a 'strong sense of place' and it definitely fulfills the label. Angels Crest is a mountain that dominates the story and the lives of the people in it. Whenever you have a 'strong sense of place' you can bet the writing is very lyrical & descr......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on March 18, 2024

Basically a soap opera in a book. I like small-town settings, especially since I’m not an American. This was a great small-town setting, with lots of interesting characters. There are several interwoven plots, which is why it’s like a soap opera. The main one is tragic, while the others are varying de......more

Quotes

Praise for Angels Crest

“A tender, closely observed tale in which a tragedy in a small mountain town reverberates among its eccentric cast of residents. Each deeply wounded in his or her experience of life, they nevertheless form a community in which loss can be held and a future made possible. Leslie Schwartz writes with precision and grace.”
—Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander

“Leslie Schwartz writes with stunning clarity about small town life at high altitudes—the ever-shifting counterpoints of community and isolation, exile and belonging, idle gossip and fierce loyalties. She evokes the breathtaking beauty and brutal indifference of the Sierran landscape—and, it would seem, of angels—and casts her loving yet unblinking eye on the lapses and compulsions that make even the best of us monstrous and, therefore, irremediably human. Schwartz understands on a fundamental level that we are all cut from the same cloth and thus require and deserve each other’s love, pity and, above all, mercy. Angels Crest is a numinous, gorgeous book.”
—Michelle Huneven, author of Jamesland