Description
Book SynopsisAfter three years in the Mexican War, color-blind Dannon Lereaux sets out across the mountains in search of "love, red, and a new class of salvation," expecting to find all three in a girl called Madder Carmine. Set in the year 1849, amidst a vividly reconceived Appalachia, young Dannon has returned from the war only to discover home was finer when remembered from afar. Disenchanted and confused he puts all hope of deliverance in a girl he once met, and, along with an escaped slave named Virgil, he embarks on an epic journey to find her. But hard on their trail is Will Lawson, Virgil's vengeful owner. As Dannon is pushed deeper into the world of the hunted, his mind slips into a world of its own. Suddenly the mountains of his youth are transformed into the Nine Circles of Hell and Virgil becomes his soul-guide through the underworld. With this notion firm in his mind, Dannon commends himself to a surreal journey as he seeks redemption in the heart of the Inferno.
Trade Review"Many archetypal themes and great works of world literature come together in this story from 1849 Appalachia" -- CM Magazine
"Tyler Enfield's Appalachia is both dreamlike and tangible, and Dannon's spiritual adventures are as compelling as his enacted ones. The novel moves elegantly and effectively between the lyrical and historical, the concrete and the conceptual, the personal and the universal. It's intelligent, and poetic, but its also a page-turner." -- Maple Tree Literary Supplement
"In Madder Carmine, novelist Tyler Enfield channels Mark Twain and Dante Alighieri and pulls it off beautifully. A thousand writers could try this trick and a thousand writers would very likely mess it up Enfield succeeds brilliantly. This is a mind-bending and delightful journey. In the same frenetic vein as Patrick Dewitts genre-bashing novels, Tyler Enfields Madder Carmine is a few steps above and vividly beyond. Enfield is an exceptional writer and clearly, a novelist to watch." -- Thomas Trofimuk, author of Waiting for Columbus
"It is a rare book that slides a cliffhanger and perplexing scenario onto the first page and then deftly pulls a contented reader along to page 110 ... Enfield owns a deftness to create characters you wish were real and a phrase so authentic to the setting and time of his story that you slip away from the noise of the world." - Rat Creek Press
"It is a rare book that slides a cliffhanger and perplexing scenario onto the first page and then deftly pulls a contented reader along to page 110 ... Enfield owns a deftness to create characters you wish were real and a phrase so authentic to the setting and time of his story that you slip away from the noise of the world." Rat Creek Press
"In Madder Carmine, novelist Tyler Enfield channels Mark Twain and Dante Alighieri and pulls it off beautifully. A thousand writers could try this trick and a thousand writers would very likely mess it up Enfield succeeds brilliantly. This is a mind-bending and delightful journey.In the same frenetic vein as Patrick Dewitts genre-bashing novels, Tyler Enfields Madder Carmine is a few steps above and vividly beyond. Enfield is an exceptional writer and clearly, a novelist to watch." -- Thomas Trofimuk
