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The Preservationist by Justin Kramon
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The Preservationist

$20.99

Retail price: $22.95

Discount: 8%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Narrator Charlie Thurston
Length 10 hours 16 minutes
Language English
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A page-turning psychological thriller from the "talented young" author of Finny (Boston Globe)

To Sam Blount, meeting Julia is the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Working at the local college and unsuccessful in his previous relationships, he'd been feeling troubled about his approaching fortieth birthday, "a great beast of a birthday," as he sees it, but being with Julia makes him feel young and hopeful. Julia Stilwell, a freshman trying to come to terms with a recent tragedy that has stripped her of her greatest talent, is flattered by Sam's attention. But their relationship is tested by a shy young man with a secret, Marcus Broley, who is also infatuated with Julia.

Told in alternating points of view, The Preservationist is the riveting tale of Julia and Sam's relationship, which begins to unravel as the threat of violence approaches and Julia becomes less and less sure whom she can trust.

Justin Kramon is the author of the novel Finny. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has published stories in Glimmer Train, Story Quarterly, Boulevard, Fence, TriQuarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review, and others. He has received honors from the Michener-Copernicus Society of America, Best American Short Stories, the Hawthornden International Writers’ Fellowship, and the Bogliasco Foundation. He has taught undergraduate and graduate fiction writing courses at Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Haverford College, the University of Iowa, Arcadia University, and elsewhere. He lives in Philadelphia.

Charlie Thurston is an actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He holds an MFA in acting from Brown University / Trinity Rep and has appeared on stages across the country with Trinity Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Creede Rep, and at Riverside Theatre and Redmoon Theater, among others. His favorite roles include Edgar in The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen in The Long Christmas Ride Home, Tuzenbach in The Three Sisters, and Tony in You Can’t Take It with You.

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Reviews

“I couldn’t help but race through The Preservationist, the story was that urgent and perfectly paced. Each of the characters, from the kindest to the creepiest, is rich, haunted, and compellingly alive.”

The Preservationist offers that rare alchemy of page-turning suspense and first-rate writing. I raced to the explosive conclusion, then found myself haunted by it. One of my favorite thrillers of the year, it’s a book you don’t want to miss.”

“The ending is stellar.”

The Preservationist effectively mixes literary thriller and realistic horror, as characters’ secrets are revealed with increasing creepiness, and the story moves from a series of deceptively mundane events to unbearable foreboding as the three suspiciously circle one other, landing the reader in a happily torturous state of anxiety.

“Arriving at college with heavy emotional baggage, Julia picks the wrong guy to unload on: cue the slow build to mayhem…What distinguishes this book is Kramon’s willingness to put predator and prey on almost equal footing: The predator is inhumane but not inhuman.”

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