Signal And Noise
By (Author) John Griesemer
Cornerstone
Arrow Books Ltd
1st April 2005
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
813.6
Paperback
624
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 37mm
427g
'Capacious, gutsy and gratifying'Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea On a dark, wet London morning in 1857, Chester Ludlow, an American engineer, arrives on the muddy banks of the Isle of Dogs to witness the launch of the largest steamship ever built, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's The Great Eastern. Ludlow, propelled by fierce ambition, is a key member of a small consortium whose ambition is to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable. He has abandoned his fragile wife, Franny, on their estate in Maine. The couple are still in deep mourning for their daughter who died in a tragic accident, aged only four. The charismatic Ludlow meets a woman who will exert the most powerful influence on his life and work - the beautiful and enigmatic Katerina Lindt. As both Ludlow and Franny's lives start to unravel, they find themselves caught up in a relentless tide of change crashing across both continents and blurring the boundaries between the physical and the spiritual worlds.
A riveting read - big, bold, rambunctious and very rewarding -- Richard Russo, author of EMPIRE FALLS
Griesemer's energetic plotting and prose mirror the vigour of the age he describes * New York Times *
Ambition, failure, triumph, love, betrayal, farce, and spirt-conjuring - these are some of the subjects powerfully animated in this grand novel. John Griesemer is a masterful writer -- Joanna Scott, author of ARROGANCE
Griesemer's novel has the courage of ambition and deserves serious praise for that alone * Time Out *
Capacious, gutsy and gratifying -- Joseph O'Connor, author of STAR OF THE SEA
John Griesemer's fiction has been published in Glimmertrain, Gettysburg Review, Threepenny Review and elsewhere. He has worked as a mental hospital orderly, a fisherman and a journalist. He is an actor and has appeared on and off Broadway and in television and film, including Malcolm X, Days of Thunder, and The Crucible. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. His first novel, No One Thinks of Greenland, was published by Black Swan in May 2002.