Lost Mountain
A Novel
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Graphic Arts Books
Published:29th Apr '21
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£24.99(9781513264462)
ADVERTISING: Targeted Reading Group Choices ad, fiction book club picks ads, PNBA Holiday Catalog ad.
AWARDS: Submitted for nature and literature awards such as National Outdoor Book Award, John Burroughs Medal, Sigurd Olson Award, Pushcart Prize, Orion, PEN Center Award, Pulitzer, PNBA, Pen/Faulkner/ ALA Notable Books, American Book Award, VCU First Novel Award, Salon Book Awards, The Orwell Prize (Political Fiction), Believer Book Award (one year post-publication), William Saroyan Prize.
EVENTS: Feature at Association for the Study of Literature and Environment July 2021 scheduled for Portland, OR, and concurrent events in PNW around that time.
MATERIALS: ARCs and book club guide.
ONLINE: sharable excerpts, blogs and social media posts targeting CliFi readers and fans of Alaska Reality TV shows.
PROMOTION: Giveaways on Goodreads and excerpt promotion for Earth Day.
REVIEWS: Reviews, mentions and excerpts in trade, regional, women’s, environment, and outdoor publications.
TRADESHOWS: Targeted author feature at PNBA, galleys to grab at BEA, ALA, NCIBA and MPIBA.
The searing debut novel of poet and writer Anne Coray, Lost Mountain is an impassioned story of love, loss, environment, and politics against a landscape facing threat of destruction.
"Anne Coray, the author of three poetry collections, has brought her observational and writing skills to fiction that demonstrates both her attention to language and her passion for her home place. . . Lost Mountain is many things: a love story between the two main characters, a portrait of a small and isolated community, a mystery, a paean to salmon and lives that surround salmon, a not-very-disguised critique of a megamine project, and an example of eco-fiction--environmentally conscious literature."
--Anchorage Daily News
When news of an open-pit mining project hits the remote Alaskan hometown of Whetstone Cove, young widow Dehlia Melven barely takes in the town's nervous chatter. The Ziggurat corporation promises the mine will be fifteen times larger than all the mines in Alaska combined, but Dehlia's thoughts are consumed by the loss of her late husband and the future of her security. At least the new arrival of solar energy expert Alan Lamb brings a distraction and a different dynamic to the small community--one that's surprisingly more interesting than expected.
For Alan, Whetstone Cove offers a fresh start to a job away from all the bureaucracy and politics he'd been running away from. Plus, there's Dehlia, the beautiful and enigmatic artist who begins to occupy more and more of Alan's thoughts. But with Ziggurat's looming presence, he knows it is only a matter of time before the corporation would take over his livelihood as well as the town's way of life. He can't bear the thought of being connected let alone paid by Ziggurat—yet leaving would also mean losing Dehlia forever.
Inspired by the Pebble Mine project in Alaska, Lost Mountain is an exploration on the interconnectivity of the natural world woven into the narrative of people's strength and resistance. Readers will enter a familiar world where environment plays an encompassing role in not just politics of society but in real relationships and careers, and in the hopes and dreams we dare to have.
"This beautifully written novel and its descriptive narrative totally encapsulate the small Alaskan town of Whetstone Cove and its residents. The characters literally jump from the pages; they are both engaging and possess many interesting layers. . . The novel highlighted the beauty of nature, the importance of caring for the environment, and the results of humanity's greed for money and power."
--Readers' Favorite
"Coray's tale will engage anyone interested in the continued mining debate, the Green Movement, and the consequences of irreversible land damage and climate change. Gripping and captivating, emotional and poetic, with its implicit nods to the philosophies of John Muir and the photography of Ansel Adams, this book stands tall like the Alaskan alders and spruces. It's a page-turner, sure to keep readers guessing and engaged from the first page until the very last."
--US Review of Books
"Lost Mountain, by Homer and Lake Clark writer Anne Coray, is a book from the geographic heart of the biggest Alaska mining controversy of the 21st century--so far. . . In this novel, she has created a community of creative spirits, an arts and crafts village which has many of the same concerns as Native villages in the region. . . I care about her characters; her natural history observations are both sweet and sharp."
--Peninsula Clarion/Homer News
"Terrific, a wonder--not only a strong story but filled with nature, with knowledge of the seasons, plants and creatures. And people--memorable characters. Lost Mountain is a testament to faith and love."
--William Heyen, author of Shoah Train
"Anne Coray's Lost Mountain is pure Alaska gold. Lost Mountain captures all the nuances and complexities of what it's like trying to live an idyllic life in a land rife with competing interests and struggles. In this beautiful debut novel, Coray reveals important truths about what is worth fighting for in both love and life."
--Don Rearden, author of The Raven's Gift
"When we hear in the news that some giant mine is going to open in interior Alaska, it's hard to understand what that means—reading this fine novel makes it easy to figure out why ripping open our last wild places is such a sad, consequential decision."
--Bill McKibben
"With a deft combination of complex characters and environmental reality, Lost Mountain explores how the looming prospect of a mine envelops the lives and relationships of a fictional artists' community. Coray examines the cost of compromise and the sustainability of love."
--Erin Mckittrick, author of A Long Trek Home
Praise for the previous works of Anne Coray:
For Violet Transparent:
"Poet Anne Coray shares intimate moments and experiences from her life through her poetry. Love, loss, nature, aging, triumphs and setbacks... and all with a skillful touch and in ways that readers can relate to and feel a part of."
--Geraldine Helen Hartman, author of the Haiku Reflections series
For Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment:
"[Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment] is an important book. Not only for the wisdom it contains, the challenges to take care of this vast, last chance of wild perfection, but also as a treasure trove of fine writing by Alaskans themselves."
--Wayne Mergler
For A Measure's Hush:
"Much like W.S. Merwin, the meditative tone of Anne Coray's A Measure's Hush provides simple, slowly revealed images of death, life, and aged renewal."
--Joel E. Jacobson, Englewood Review of Books
For Bone Strings:
"Anne Coray's poems in Bone Strings emanate with an intuitive sense of the Alaskan wilderness where she grew up. As one who is intimate with landscape, she is able to bypass the tendency to conceive wilderness as a pristine, magical presence. Instead, through her poems, she meanders the fractured line between harshness and beauty. She readily confronts the odds of survival and exposes the reader to a certain reality not only about the wilderness of nature, but also about the wilderness of self."
--Katie Kingston, Poetry West
ISBN: 9781513264455
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages