It’s a symphony of voices, stories that sting and hurt, the fresco has the shape of a community lost in hypotheses, in the crevices of unspoken thoughts, upset by the drama, still years later: it is a thorny book The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell, published by NN Publisher. The first of the West Table series. Ruby so imperfect, a character at De Andrè. The Glencross with family litanies and secrets. It’s not thorny in the sense that it generates scandal, no. This country noir (as the writer, among the most important of contemporary American literature, has defined his genre), seems almost difficult to handle. You don’t believe, you don’t see, you don’t find the thread, then you wrap it too much in your hands in that sudden gash. The emotions, the shock, the invisible truths. A novel that has so much rhythm, vibrant, and you want to read it from every possible angle. Only in this way, perhaps, to discover that detail, the atmosphere that we would be sorry to have lost.
The black angel that overlooked the unnamed dead began to dance. The plaque on which he rested was as long as two men, thick with names chiseled in marble many decades before, but still shiny. He held a torch high, in case the Truth tried to escape with the darkness “
Alek, twelve, spends the summer at Wast Table with his grandmother Alma. In that Missouri locality, the community still bears the marks of the tragic event that led to the death of dozens of people. The explosion of the ballroom that in 1929 took so many souls away from loved ones, among them Ruby was Alma’s sister. The dynamics of that event never found the light and above all there was never a culprit. But Alma, who for decades has been the maid in the manor houses of the richest families, is convinced that she knows the truth and tells her grandson. Many voices, a choral story, a single red thread that unites the destiny of those who become part of history, The maid’s version.
WHO IS THE AUTHOR
Daniel Woodrell (1953) is considered one of the greatest living American writers. His books have won several prizes and awards, including the Pen Award, the International iMac Dublin Literary Award and the Sundance Film Festival Award for the film adaptation of his book A Cold Winter. He loves to set his stories in the landscapes of the Ozark Mountains, Missouri.