The Adversary

Reviews

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 BMO WINTERSET AWARD

“[Crummey] has plumbed his region’s past to create some of the most stark and eloquent fiction written in this country in the current century. . . . [The Adversary] ranks among [his] finest.” —The Globe and Mail

“Ingeniously constructed and wound tight as a mainspring. . . Flawlessly crafted. . . A sinuous narrative in constant, elegant motion.” —The Wall Street Journal

“An all-consuming, mutually destructive sibling rivalry propels this vibrant historical novel. . . . By turns bawdy, violent, comic, and gruesome, [The Adversary] presents a bleak portrait of colonial life and a potent rendering of the ways in which the ‘vicious, hateful helplessness’ of a grudge can corrupt everything it touches.” —The New Yorker

“One of North America’s finest novelists. . . . [Crummey’s] conjuring of the rawness, cruelty, and precariousness of life . . . is detailed and haunting. . . . The Adversary is beautifully written, immensely powerful, and subtly ingenious novel. Its greatest . . . revelations . . . . take your breath away. . . . When I turned the last page, I just sat there, utterly stunned by this novel’s terrible force.” —The Washington Post

“The splendor [of Crummey’s novels] comes from [his] canny doling out of plot turns and character twists, and from his language—a mix of Newfoundland peculiarities, scriptural quotations, and Anglo-Saxon swearing. . . . A twisty, gloriously grim novel.” —The New York Times

“Masterpiece is a glib word and one that is thrown-around all too casually, but here it seems to fit: The Adversary is a masterpiece, plain and simple. The fact that it joins previous Crummey novels . . . under that designation, is all the more impressive.” —Toronto Star

“Magnificent . . . mordant, masterful. . . . Crummey weaves forgotten idioms into dialogue and action, creating a knotty, muscular, incantatory language that builds on Melville and Proulx as much as biblical antecedents. . . . Each sentence sparkles. . . . Exquisite prose . . . spellbinding drama . . . The Adversary is a magnificent novel.” —Star Tribune

“Spellbinding. . . . Along with a vivid setting and memorable characters, Crummey impresses with his dexterous use of language to convey the time period. . . . This gripping page-turner is Crummey’s masterpiece.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An enthralling masterpiece. . . . Crummey boasts . . . prodigious powers of description, cutting humor, and explorations of good and evil in his descent to the lower depths. . . . His language is ceaselessly entertaining. . . . The sheer energy of the novel never flags. It’s the latest superb effort by an author who couldn’t be more deserving of greater recognition beyond his native Canada." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A splendid tale of sibling rivalry and escalating retribution. . . . Crummey’s characters leap off the page. The exquisite period language is lyrical yet unrelentingly portentous, and the insults are of Shakespearean caliber. . . . The cumulative misfortune falls somewhere between biblical and Dickensian as Crummey masterfully builds the suspense while tempering the intensity with instances of selfless devotion. [With The Adversary] Crummey has . . . established himself as one of our best writers.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Gobsmackingly accomplished. . . . Crummey’s novel simply fascinates. It’s a peerless study of interpersonal strife and power dynamics, as well as a portrait series of a community deeply prone to weathers.” —Quill and Quire
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