David Vann

Last year, David Vann was already a very welcome guest at Crossing Border, where he enjoyed great success with Legend of a Suicide. Now he returns with his first novel: Caribou Island.

In Legend of a Suicide, five short stories and one novella each give their own perspective on the central event of the book: the suicide of David Vann’s father. The differing, often conflicting accounts and emotions, written in Vann’s beautiful style and set against the exotic backdrop of Alaska, made it a remarkably powerful literary debut (which was awarded, among others, the prestigious French Prix Médicis étranger).

Caribou Island is again based on Vann’s own family history, and again the setting is Alaska, a place of breathtaking beauty and harsh romance that becomes a merciless catalyst. Gary and Irene are a middle-aged couple trapped in an unhappy marriage. When Gary decides to pursue an old dream, building a log cabin on an uninhabited island, Irene goes with him. She is struggling with a childhood trauma and above all fears abandonment. Determined, they begin constructing their new home. It is meant to be a fresh start, but when a harsh winter sets in, it also becomes the grim breaking point of their marriage.

Their daughter Rhoda anxiously follows their efforts, while at the same time drifting toward a damaged future of her own, as she pressures her boyfriend Jim into proposing while he becomes increasingly unfaithful.

Read the first chapter by clicking on this link.

Interview: David Vann will be interviewed during BorderKitchen by Wim Brands (VPRO). Location: Weimarstraat 36, The Hague. Start time: 8:00 PM. Reservations: on working days via 070-3462355 or info@borderkitchen.nl. Tickets cost €5.00.

From the press:
“Vann handles the tricky transition from story to novel with aplomb: the dramatic, shifting landscape; the sharp insight into an unravelling mind; the myth of masculinity; love's messy cross-currents — everything that made Legend so absorbing, and rightly acclaimed, is here deepened and strengthened.” – The Times

“The perceived temperature of this book may be exceptionally low, but as a reviewer you cannot help but feel warmth when witnessing David Vann’s development into a superior writer.” – NRC Handelsblad

Caribou Island is translated by Arjaan van Nimwegen.