NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Charlie Thurston narrates the troubling story of struggle and survival in this apocalyptic novel. The U.S. has been mostly destroyed by political extremism and fires. Hearing rumors that Ireland will accept American refugees, Lark and his family take an overloaded boat across the sea. Upon arrival, Lark, the only survivor on the ship, is not welcomed, as he expected, and soon finds himself desperately searching for safety. Thurston’s performance captures the desperation, fear, and loneliness of a young man who is suddenly on his own in an alien place. Thurston’s passionate narration matches the pace of this audiobook perfectly, and his strong emotional range keeps listeners riveted as they follow Lark’s struggle to survive. V.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
07/18/2022
In this brutal yet hopeful dystopian, House (Southernmost) creates a day-after-tomorrow scenario in which fires have devastated the globe, the U.S. has been taken over by religious extremists called the Fundies, and Ireland has become a place of sanctuary. That’s where 20-year-old Lark and his parents are headed in a yacht filled with refugees from North America. But as they near land, they find the border has been closed and are attacked. Lark is the only survivor. He ventures inland—before his mother died in the violence, she said to walk to Glendalough, an old monastic settlement. On the way, he hooks up with a stray dog, Seamus, and a rifle-toting widow, Helen, who is in search of her missing son. The trio gets caught up in a war between the Nays (who are opposed to everything) and the Resistance. They pick up Ronan, the young daughter of a bounty hunter, whose presence only complicates matters for the three. House’s dystopia is an overly familiar one, slipstreaming behind Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, though the author fearlessly leans into his dark vision and adds texture with flashbacks to Lark’s early years and chapters narrated from Seamus’s point of view. The result is a fiercely visceral reading experience. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Kentucky Poet Laureate Southern Literary Award Winner Nautilus Award Winner – Gold Indie BestsellerSalon Favorite Book of 2022Booklist Editors' Choice of 2022Garden and Gun Best Southern Book of 2022 Indie Next List PickLos Angeles Times' Most Anticipated Fall 2022Lambda Literary's Most Anticipated Fall 2022
“In Lark Ascending, Silas House casts an irresistible spell, conjuring a near future that is both familiar and unbearable, illuminating the brutality and suffering that our own thoughtless age seems determined to invoke. But Lark Ascending is not merely, or even mainly, a tale of pain and grief. This beautiful book is shot through with such tenderness and humanity, such love and courage and beauty and hope, that it feels almost like a prayer.”
—Margaret Renkl, author of Late Migrations and Graceland, At Last
“Silas House has always served as an ancestor from the past who has stepped into the present with rich lessons in tow. But with Lark House reveals himself to be an oracle from the future who has come back to illuminate our lived moment with a snapshot of what the years ahead could hold. The vision is terrifying and spare, but in House’s capable and delicate telling, it is also beautiful and compelling. Lark marks a stunning turn in House’s career, taking him from the Appalachian Mountains to a post-apocalyptic Atlantic crossing, but I have no doubt that readers will follow Silas House wherever he goes, whether into the past or headlong into the future.”
—Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of When Ghosts Come Home
“Truly harrowing, yet even more deeply affecting and tender. . . This is very much a book about connection, family, and, above all else, hope. It is this deep hopefulness that allows House’s novel to transcend the constraints of some other dystopian novels. . . Lark Ascending is full of rich colors and sounds and images, brimming with the majesty of life.”—Chapter16.org
“Amazing… powerful, and prescient.” —Dallas Voice
“Lark Ascending’s beautiful language and imagery, combined with the emotional heft of the story, drew me in from the first paragraph.”—Literary Hub
“A postapocalyptic epic that is quiet and lyrical…an emotional testament to the power of hope.”—Booklist (starred review)
“The narrator of House’s seventh novel is a young gay man who’s escaped a near-future America knocked sideways by climate change and right-wing militias. His destination is Ireland, working off little more than a rumor that an Edenic safe haven isn’t far over the horizon. House works with some familiar dystopian tropes, but the book is distinguished by his lyrical, earthy tone.”—Los Angeles Times (Most Anticipated Fall Book)
“A fiercely visceral reading experience.”—Publishers Weekly
“A cleareyed and engaging apocalyptic yarn.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The not-too-distant dystopia of House’s latest becomes a vehicle for the author to tell a compelling story about a refugee crisis. Because House takes the story out of a contemporary context, readers can more easily empathize with the novel’s refugees rather than focusing on real-world quandaries.”—Library Journal
“Silas House’s “Lark Ascending” is a dystopian classic, finding new notes of peril and possibility in the once-and-future homeland of Ireland and giving us the kind of richly observed alternative family that humanity of any era would call savior. It also has the best dog ever, excepting my own. Don’t miss this one.”—Louis Bayard, author of Jackie and Me
“I was sucked into this urgent story where survival in the not-too-distant future depends on forging connections with strangers and nurturing tenderness and hope within. An essential, heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting read.”—Michelle Gallen, author of Factory Girls
“Just astonishing . . .terrifying, moving, beautiful, instructive, and haunting. I have never been more deeply moved by a novel.”—Lee Smith, author of Dimestore
“With Lark Ascending, the gifted Silas House has, with the most deft and masterful touches, forged a quite terrifying and all-too-plausible glimpse of our near future and somehow imbued it with almost impossible quantities of poetry and humanity. A gripping story of endurance, suffering and loss, but also of overwhelming love, loyalty and hope, the result is a hugely impressive feat of the imagination . . . A beautiful, haunting piece of work, and a compulsive read.” —Billy O'Callaghan, author of Life Sentences and The Dead House
“The greatest Southern novel of the year.”—Georgia Public Broadcast / Salvation South
"A poignant tale... Lark Ascending is full of such magic."—Southern Literary Review
"Exciting, hopeful, and beautiful."—Alabama Public Radio / Don Noble's Book Reviews
"This is a story of the dangers of both flight and immigration, survival enabled by chosen families, and the grace of humanity amid chaos. I had to read some sentences several times over to fully appreciate the beauty of the writing."—Kathleen Lance, Denver Reader, Denver Post
“Silas House’s apocalyptic parable strikes the heart powerfully because of the eerie parallels to now… Lushly written”—Bowling Green Daily News
“Renowned for his evocative prose and deep-rooted connection to Appalachia, Silas House stands as a literary beacon illuminating the complexities of Southern life and culture… House’s writing transcends mere storytelling.”—Deep South Magazine
Library Journal
08/01/2022
Lark is just a boy when the world comes to an end. He doesn't remember the before times, but his "after" seems pretty good, growing up in a remote part of Maine with his parents, his friends, and the boy who becomes the love of his life—although their love has been outlawed by the reactionary forces that control this near-future United States. When Lark's idyll is shattered, he and his family make a long, desperate trek to Ireland, where they hope to find refuge. By the time Lark completes that dangerous journey, he's alone and grief-stricken. However, with the help of a good dog and a fighting companion who knows the lay of this new land, he finds a place where he can finally rest. VERDICT The not-too-distant dystopia of House's (Southernmost) latest becomes a vehicle for the author to tell a compelling story about a refugee crisis. Because House takes the story out of a contemporary context, readers can more easily empathize with the novel's refugees rather than focusing on real-world quandaries.—Marlene Harris
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Charlie Thurston narrates the troubling story of struggle and survival in this apocalyptic novel. The U.S. has been mostly destroyed by political extremism and fires. Hearing rumors that Ireland will accept American refugees, Lark and his family take an overloaded boat across the sea. Upon arrival, Lark, the only survivor on the ship, is not welcomed, as he expected, and soon finds himself desperately searching for safety. Thurston’s performance captures the desperation, fear, and loneliness of a young man who is suddenly on his own in an alien place. Thurston’s passionate narration matches the pace of this audiobook perfectly, and his strong emotional range keeps listeners riveted as they follow Lark’s struggle to survive. V.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-06-22
A young man heads across the Atlantic, seeking refuge on a rapidly collapsing planet.
We meet 20-year-old Lark, the narrator of House’s seventh novel, on an overcrowded yacht full of refugees headed from Maine to Ireland. Climate change has sparked devastating fires across America, and aggressive, heavily armed militias enforce a hard-line religious doctrine that makes Lark a target as a gay man. After an arduous trek across the sea that kills many of the passengers, including both of his parents, Lark arrives in Ireland on little more than a rumor that he’ll have a safe haven in Glendalough, a spiritually blessed place said to be both progressive and spared the worst of the climate disaster. Along the way he befriends a dog—a rare creature now in this cruel hellscape—and a woman savvy about the landscape and its threats. House delivers this straightforward adventure with efficiency and poignancy, capturing the brief idyll of freedom Lark and his family enjoyed before leaving and the newfound appreciation he has for an environment and liberal society that are both rapidly collapsing. And the novel’s style has a clarity and rough-hewn simplicity that bring the story’s conflicts into sharp relief. (It’s no accident that the dog is named Seamus, a tribute to the Irish Nobel winner Seamus Heaney, the earthiest of great Irish poets.) The novel’s chief flaw is its overfamiliarity, to the point of almost feeling like a pastiche of dystopian-novel plots and styles: At various points the story contains echoes of The Dog Stars, I Am Legend, The Road, American War, Station Eleven, and more. House seamlessly works in present-day concerns about rampant fundamentalism and willful ignorance about climate catastrophe, but for anybody well versed in the genre, this will feel like well-trod ground.
A cleareyed and engaging, if familiar, apocalyptic yarn.
