Tooth of the Covenant: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Best known for his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne was burdened by familial shame, which began with his great-great-grandfather John Hathorne, the infamously unrepentant Salem witch trial judge. In this, the eighth stand-alone book in The American Novels series, we witness Hawthorne writing a tale entitled Tooth of the Covenant, in which he sends his fictional surrogate, Isaac Page, back to the year 1692 to save Bridget Bishop, the first person executed for witchcraft, and rescue the other victims from execution. But when Page puts on Hathornes spectacles, his worldview is transformed and he loses his resolve. As he battles his conscience, he finds that it is his own life hanging in the balance.

An ingenious and profound investigation into the very notion of universal truth and morality, Tooth of the Covenant probes storytellings depths to raise historys dead and assuage the persistent ghost of guilt.

'[Norman Locks fiction] shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights.' NPR

'[A] dazzling series...Locks supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character.' Washington Post

'Splendid....Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous.' Foreword Reviews, starred review

'A distinctive and ambitious foray into literary history.' Kirkus Reviews

'A reflective and subtly poignant look at Nathaniel Hawthorne...Lock displays a nimble virtuosity as he captures the speech of the time while demonstrating how the implicit bias, bigotry, and hypocrisy of Puritanism became the cancel culture of its day.' Booklist

'The novels somber exploration of American cruelty and religious intolerance is balanced by its nimble prose, sly wit, and engaging glimpse of a literary figure. Locks latest ambitious look at Americas history will delight fans of the series and earn new converts.' Publishers Weekly

Reviews

Praise for Tooth of the Covenant

Big Other Book Award Finalist
Fine Books Magazine Editors Shelf selection
Foreword Reviews Book of the Day selection

Bold and imaginative. . . . Probing into the dark corners of fear, guilt, and morality, Lock produces something unexpected. Fine Books Magazine

Splendid. . . . Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous. Foreword Reviews (starred review)

A distinctive and ambitious foray into literary history. Kirkus Reviews

A reflective and subtly poignant look at Nathaniel Hawthorne. . . . Lock displays a nimble virtuosity as he captures the speech of the time while demonstrating how the implicit bias, bigotry, and hypocrisy of Puritanism became the cancel culture of its day. Booklist

The novels somber exploration of American cruelty and religious intolerance is balanced by its nimble prose, sly wit, and engaging glimpse of a literary figure. Locks latest ambitious look at Americas history will delight fans of the series and earn new converts. Publishers Weekly

Locks clever voice, shapely prose and shrewd observations help lighten the storys mood, and the novels look at intolerance couldnt be more timely. Society Nineteen

Select Praise for Norman Locks The American Novels Series

Norman Lock has created a memorable portrait gallery of American subjects, in a succession of audaciously imagined, wonderfully original, and beautifully written novels unlike anything in our literature. Joyce Carol Oates

Shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights. NPR

Our national history and literature are Norman Locks playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . . [His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character. Washington Post

Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth . . . to create something entirely newan American fable of ideas. Shelf Awareness

[A] consistently excellent series. . . . Lock has an impressive ear for the musicality of language, and his characteristic lush prose brings vitality and poetic authenticity to the dialogue. Booklist

On The Boy in His Winter

[Lock] is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he re-imagines Huck Finns journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into Americas pastand future. Readers Digest

On American Meteor

[Walt Whitman] hovers over [American Meteor], just as Mark Twains spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter. . . . Like all Mr. Locks books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield. Wall Street Journal

On The Port-Wine Stain

Locks novel engages not merely with [Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mtter] but with decadent fin de sicle art and modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions about the metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. The reader is just as spellbound by Locks story as [his novels narrator] is by Poes. . . . Echoes of Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freuds theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction. New York Times Book Review

On A Fugitive in Walden Woods

A Fugitive in Walden Woods manages that special magic of making Thoreaus time in Walden Woods seem fresh and surprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptive novel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect the United States to this day. Victor LaValle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom and The Changeling

On The Wreckage of Eden

The lively passages of Emily [Dickinsons]s letters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robert finds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moral hypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid of the ugliness of the time, Locks thought-provoking series continues to impress. Publishers Weekly

On Feast Day of the Cannibals

Lock does not merely imitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbal flourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville. Gay & Lesbian Review

On American Follies

Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists, misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bear resemblance to the contemporary United States. Library Journal (starred review)

On Voices in the Dead House

Gripping. . . . The legacy of John Brown looms over both Alcott and Whitman [in] a haunting novel that offers candid portraits of literary legends. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

On The Ice Harp

In The Ice Harp, Norman Lock deftly takes us into the polyphonic swirl of Emersons mind at the end of his life, inviting us to meet the man anew even as the philosopher fights to stop forgetting himself. Who will I be when the words are gone, the great thinker wonders, and how will I know what is right I gladly asked myself these same impossible questions on every page of this remarkably empathetic and deeply moral novel. Matt Bell, author of Appleseed and Refuse to Be Done

Author Bio

Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage and radio plays. He has won The Dactyl Foundation Literary Fiction Award, The Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and has been longlisted twice for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize. He has also received writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey, where he is at work on the next books of The American Novels series.