A SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FINALIST
A LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST
AN AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER
"As imaginative and frightening as a whole gallery of surrealist paintings come luridly to life." (John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)
"Fast paced, yet it also succeeds as a reflective tale of self-discovery...Well crafted and atmospheric, this will attract readers who enjoy Neil Gaiman and Mark Z. Danielewski." (Library Journal)
"A luscious, compelling tangle of a thriller. The Glittering World maps the realms of friendship and identity, the mythic and the contemporary. I loved it." (Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble)
When Michael "Blue" Whitley — a former party boy turned up-and-coming Brooklyn chef — returns with three friends to the remote Canadian commune of his birth, he discovers that his entire life has been a carefully orchestrated lie. He is in fact someone else altogether, a replacement for a local child who disappeared twenty-five years earlier. He is something not quite human.
Only now it's Blue's turn to vanish, leaving his friends to unravel the mystery of his abduction. Soon, psychology and skepticism collide with old-world folklore and superstition, revealing the secret history of the commune as well as that of an ancient race of beings that inhabits the hidden corners of the land.
Set among the artisans, burnouts, and New Age mystics of rural Cape Breton, The Glittering World is a dark and modern fairy tale, a novel of self-identity and supernatural suspense.
ADDITIONAL PRAISE FOR THE GLITTERING WORLD
"The Glittering World is a stunning phantasmagoria drawn from the world just beneath the surface, aswarm with great and memorable characters and a plot that twists and turns as it hurtles forward. A grand debut. One taste, and you'll be addicted." (Keith Donohue, author of The Stolen Child)
"Levy's first novel is confident, brave, and beautiful in every way, with resonant warmth and an understanding of the fundamentally singular human experience." (Shelf Awareness)
"Emotionally complex… Levy’s atmospherics are all encompassing, and fantastic. A darkly romantic, lovely, sometimes horrifying, and yes, glittering read." (My Bookish Ways)
"Frightening and supernatural . . . the imaginative plot is first rate." (Suspense Magazine)
"Robert Levy spins a dark and mythic tale. Exquisitely allegorical, this novel seethes with menace, romance, and mystery. The Glittering World is a powerful debut." (Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All)
"Robert Levy's transcendent first novel balances on the knife-edge between psychological horror and mainstream thriller — [it] deserves a place beside that of Peter Straub, Graham Joyce, and Mark. Z. Danielewski." (Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss)
"Imagine True Blood crossed with Margaret Atwood. As seductive, fantastical, and menacing as any modern supernatural classic." (Scott Cheshire, author of High as the Horses’ Bridles)
"The Glittering World is that rare and wonderful kind of book that takes something old and makes it new again. Like those who disappear into the woods in this novel, once you step into these lush and mysterious pages, be prepared to return to your own world altered." (Christopher Barzak, author of One for Sorrow)
"The Glittering World is that rare thing: A literary novel that reads like a thriller. A fairy tale for the modern era." (Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year)