James Lasdun

The Horned Man

"Unputdownable... a masterpiece of chilling, mesmerizing control.'"—Michael Dirda , Washington Post

The Horned Man opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world. As Lawrence Miller—an English expatriate and professor of gender studies—tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings, we descend into a world of subtly deceptive appearances where persecutor and victim continually shift roles, where paranoia assumes an air of calm rationality, and where enlightenment itself casts a darkness in which the most nightmarish acts occur. As the novel races to its shocking conclusion, we follow Miller as he traverses the streets of Manhattan and the decaying suburbs beyond, in terrified pursuit of his pursuers. Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, The Horned Man is an extraordinary, unforgettable first novel by an acclaimed writer and poet of unusual power. Reading group guide included.

"[W]hen we read him we know what language is for again."—James Wood, The Guardian

"The wit and live, tactile intelligence here is beautiful, thrilling."—Mary Gaitskill, author of Two Girls, Fat and Thin

"[A]n exquisitely imagined thriller of the darkest hue."—Seattle Times, Fionn Meade

"Were Alfred Hitchcock still around, he'd surely be a fan of this.... all the elements of one of Hitchcock's great films'"—Time Out New York, John Freeman

"Witty, inventive, and engaging from start to finish."—Boston Globe, Scott W. Helman

"A remarkable, unsettling novel."—Toronto Globe and Mail, Martin Levin

"A Jamesian exercise in sensibility, certainly, but with a glistening thrillerish edge..."—The Guardian [London]

"A tale of Borgesian complexity...reminiscent of a set of nested Russian dolls."—The Independent

"[A] marvellous novel, both compellingly readable - I literally could not put it down - and deeply philosophical."—The Scotsman

"A brilliant novel that must be reread at least once."—The Independent on Sunday

"This is an exquisite and frightening book...The Horned Man is a page turner."—Evening Standard [London]

"This psycho-thriller is clever, stunning and uncomfortable. Its twists had me thinking strange thoughts for days."—Daily Mail

"Lasdun has hauled out something deeply disturbing and compelling from a pristine darkness of his own."—The Observer

"A beautifully imagined story, singular in its observations of human life and the shifting realities of ourselves and all that is around us."—Paula Fox

"There are hints of Nabokov and Chandler in this superb piece of invention and implosion. Lasdun's wide-ranging imagination and wit is bounded only by a brevity compared to which Raymond Carver seems wordy."—Dale Peck

"A wonderful first novel from a writer with a poet's gift for precision. The Horned Man is an elegantly troubling, and often very funny, fable of sexual obsession and urban unease which Lasdun brings to a genuinely startling culmination."—A. L. Kennedy

"The Horned Man is a beautiful and deeply disturbing book, one that defies simple explanation. A man's life begins to unravel at the mercy of what appears to be a conspiracy, and in James Lasdun's deft hands, this dissolution assumes the harrowing, irresistible power of a nightmare."—Jennifer Egan