The Kept
  • Published:
    Jan-2014 (Hardcover)
    Jan-2015 (Paperback)
  • Formats:
    Print / eBook / Audio
  • Main Genre:
    General Fiction
  • Time Period:
    19th Century 1880's-1890's
  • Pages:
    384
  • Rating:
  • Purchase:
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Set in rural New York state at the turn of the twentieth century, superb new talent James Scott makes his literary debut with The Kept -- a propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of Michael Ondaatje, Cormac McCarthy, and Bonnie Jo Campbell, in which a mother and her young son embark on a quest to avenge a terrible and violent tragedy that has shattered their secluded family.

In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.

A scorching portrait of a merciless world -- of guilt and lost innocence, atonement and retribution, resilience and sacrifice, pregnant obsession and primal adolescence -- The Kept introduces an old-beyond-his-years protagonist as indelible and heartbreaking as Mattie Ross of True Grit or Jimmy Blevins of All the Pretty Horses, as well as a shape-shifting mother as enigmatic and mysterious as a character drawn by Russell Banks or Marilynne Robinson.
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EDITIONS
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    •  
    • Jan-2015
    • HarperPerennial
    • Trade Paperback
    • ISBN: 0062236652
    • ISBN13: 9780062236654
    •  
    • Oct-2014
    • William Heinemann (UK)
    • Paperback
    • ISBN: 0099559048
    • ISBN13: 9780099559047
    • First Edition
    • Jan-2014
    • Harper
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 0062236733
    • ISBN13: 9780062236739
    •  
    • Jan-2014
    • HarperCollins
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 0062236660
    • ISBN13: 9780062236661
    •  
    • Feb-2014
    • William Heinemann (UK)
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 1448150655
    • ISBN13: 9781448150656
    •  
    • Feb-2014
    • HarperPerennial
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 1443418404
    • ISBN13: 9781443418409
    •  
    • Jan-2014
    • Blackstone Audiobooks
    • Audio CD
    • ISBN: 1482991160
    • ISBN13: 9781482991161
    •  
    • Jan-2014
    • Blackstone Audiobooks
    • Audio CD
    • ISBN: 1482991179
    • ISBN13: 9781482991178
    •  
    • Jan-2014
    • HarperCollins
    • Playaway
    • ISBN: 1467664790
    • ISBN13: 9781467664790
    • Library Binding
    •  
    • May-2014
    • Thorndike Press
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 1410468712
    • ISBN13: 9781410468710
    • Large Print



View the Complete James Scott Book List