Lorelei's Secret

(Paperback)

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Description

Sometimes love can speak louder than words . . .

Paul Iverson's life is stable, orderly and dull - until he meets Lexy and her Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, Lorelei. From their first date, Lexy sweeps him off his feet and brings him passion, adventure and love. But one afternoon, Lexy climbs the apple tree in their backyard and falls to her death. Heartbroken, Paul cannot believe it was an accident and sets out to uncover the truth, with the help of the only creature who saw what happened, Lorelei.

What follows is both comic and deeply touching as Paul tries to divine Lorelei's secret. And in his attempts to teach her to communicate, Paul revisits his often tempestuous romance with Lexy, learning things about his wife that he could never have imagined.

LORELEI'S SECRET is a spellbinding novel that will win the heart of every reader with its story of unending love, loss and the lengths that people will go to when driven by grief and hope.

Reviews

'Inventive and gripping ... Parkhurst handles the quest formula with originality and humour' -- Literary Review 'If you like a tear-jerker with a twist you'll adore this. In the vein of Maggie O'Farrell's After You'd Gone, it deals with the loss of a loved one' - Glamour 'One of those rare novels ... that intrigues, pulls on the heartstrings and confuses you all at once' -- Time Out 'A shimmering fictional portrait of love and loss' -- Scotsman 'Prepare to have your heart smashed into melancholy pieces' -- Elle 20030801 'Mesmerising and unusual ... The book is beautifully written and, alongside thriller-like elements, packs a powerful emotional punch' -- Good Housekeeping 20030801 'An extraordinarily moving novel, poised halfway between a lament and a mystery ... A novel to be read in one sitting, LORELEI'S SECRET is one of this summer's "must read" books' -- Big Issue (in the North) 20030801 'Captivatingly strange ... perilously adorable' -- New York Times 20030620 'Wonderfully inventive and slyly funny' -- Alexei Sayle, Telegraph Book of the Year 20030620 'A heartbreaking exploration of memory and language, grief and redemption' -- Esquire 20030701 'This tightly woven tale has all the right stuff: romance, suspense, fantasy, and an ending that does not disappoint.' -- Red magazine (US) 20030601 'Part love story, part psychological thriller and a thumping good read' -- Livewire 20030801 'A quirky and endearing love triangle' -- Marie Claire (US) 20030701 'Carolyn Parkhurst writes as well about talking dogs and square eggs as she does about the limits of language and the intractable mysteries of the self. 'Lorelei's Secret' is a strange, beautiful and very moving novel that asks us to look, in equal measure, at the puzzle that is grief and the puzzle that is love.' -- Elizabeth Graver, author of 'The Honey Thief' and 20030701 'Carolyn Parkhurst's 'Lorelei's Secret' --so luminous, heartbreaking, comic, and daring--is an astonishing debut. Parkhurst writes of love and loss, and, above all, of what we can and cannot know of one another, with power and deeply earned grace.' -- Richard McCann, author of 'Ghost Letters' 20030701 'Shimmers with idiosyncratic intrigue ... a humanistic parable of the heart's confusions.' -- Entertainment Weekly 20030613 'The most unique and imaginative book I have read in recent times. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer and her story is daring, tender and full of surprises as well as wisdom and insight. I simply could not put it down.' -- John Searles, author of 'Boy Still Missing'; Senio 20030613 'Every once in a while a book comes along that knocks you for six. Lorelei's Secret is just such a novel. It made me laugh and cry and most importantly, avidly read until the last page' -- ABTA 20030801 'This is the kind of book you stay up all night to finish' -- Image 20030801 'Carolyn Parkhurst's startling, achingly compelling first novel ... Part mystery, part thriller and all love story, this is a painfully evocative work, and Parkhurst is that rare thing - a "promising new talent" who turns out to be exactly that' -- Sunday Business Post 20030801 'a charming, tender study in grief' -- Marian Keyes, The Week 20030801

Author Bio

Carolyn Parkhurst's fiction has appeared in 'The North American Review', The Minnesota Review', 'Hawai'i Review' and 'The Crescent Review'. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and their son.