The OtherNYRB Classics presents the landmark psychological horror novel about 13-year-old twins living in a bucolic New England town—one good and the other very, very evil. “A whirlpool of Oh-My-God horror.” —Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby Holland and Niles Perry are identical 13-year-old twins. They are close, close enough, almost, to read each other’s thoughts, but they couldn’t be more different. Holland is bold and mischievous, a bad influence, while Niles is kind and eager to please, the sort of boy who makes parents proud. The Perrys live in the bucolic New England town their family settled centuries ago, and as it happens, the extended clan has gathered at its ancestral farm this summer to mourn the death of the twins’ father in a most unfortunate accident. Mrs. Perry still hasn’t recovered from the shock of her husband’s gruesome end and stays sequestered in her room, leaving her sons to roam free. As the summer goes on, though, and Holland’s pranks become increasingly sinister, Niles finds he can no longer make excuses for his brother’s actions. Thomas Tryon’s best-selling novel about a homegrown monster is an eerie examination of the darkness that dwells within everyone. It is a landmark of psychological horror that is a worthy descendent of the books of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shirley Jackson, and Patricia Highsmith. “. . . will doubtless become one of the classics of horror tales, comparable to The Turn of the Screw.” —Dorothy B. Hughes, Los Angeles Times |
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Common terms and phrases
Ada’s Angelini Anthony Adverse apple cellar asked Aunt Josie Aunt Valeria Aunt Vee baby barn basket blue breath Bruno Hauptmann cattails chair child closed clover Cripes dark dead Doc Savage doll-lamp dress eyes face Father feel field figure filled find fine fingers fire first five flash flesh floor flowers glass gone hair hand harmonica head Holland icehouse Jewett knew lady laughed lawn Leno LEONARDO SCIASCIA lifted light Miss DeGroot Miss Josceline-Marie Mother mouth Niles Niles’s parlor PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR Pennyfeather Pequot Pequot Landing Peregrine for Perry Perry’s remember Rider ring root beer Rose Rowe Russell Shadow Hills shook smile staring stood stopped sunflowers sure tell there’s thing thought tobacco tin took Torrie TOVE JANSSON trick turned twin Uncle George VASILY GROSSMAN VICTOR SERGE voice waiting watched window Winnie