Dear Reader:

Sometimes a book sneaks up on you quietly and steals your bearings. You feel odd, a bit unsettled, but nonetheless enjoy the experience. Colors look different, words sound like music, and you find yourself standing still in the middle of nowhere, holding an open umbrella in the bright sunlight as time seems to move in waves around you. The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis is just that sort of literary trip—an ineffable sleeper of a novel where “[n]o amount of character sketching or plot summary can begin to convey the experience of reading this strange and delightful novel”—The Washington Post.
        That being said, The Thin Place is set in an ordinary American small town near the Canadian border, and begins when three girls come across the body of a dead man near a local lake. Two of the youngsters set off in search of help. Twelve year-old Mees Kipp, however, stays with the body, touches the man’s cheek, and somehow brings him back to life. What follows is more than a mystery about what happened; it’s an investigation into the worldly and otherworldly, with peculiar and humorous characters that create a bizarre kaleidoscope of intrigue and miracles.

Gary Jansen
Executive Editor, QPB