Patrick McGrath is the author of six previous novels, including Asylum and Spider, and two collections of stories. He lives in New York.
“McGrath at his dark-hearted best.” —O, The Oprah Magazine“Beautifully crafted and paced, Trauma [is] either a superb psychological thriller or a masterly evocation of modern alienation and despair. . . . A terrific literary entertainment, one that will keep you on edge.” —The Washington Post “Full of sensitive, well-observed touches [and] elegant when it needs to be. . . . McGrath makes us see that our own minds are the most haunted of houses.” —Los Angeles Times“Ambitious. . . . McGrath uses his potent storytelling powers to draw us into [his narrator's] fevered brain and convey his emotional distress.” —The New York Times"The inversion of roles, the blurring of the boundaries between the rational and the irrational, the violence, the twisted sexual passions, the slipperiness of memory: these are familiar themes in McGrath's fiction. Here they are recombined in powerful and imaginative ways. Trauma is a gripping psychological thriller. McGrath's prose is taut and lean; his way with characters is deft; and his explorations of the dark side of human nature are disturbing. And at the novel's centre, the descent of its narrator from a false sense of superiority into a pit of madness and despair is handled with great skill." —Andrew Scull, The Times Literary Supplement“Tortuous, often gripping…The novel is aptly titled, since trauma can be said to be the origin and the end of its insidiously uncoiling developments.” —Sven Birkerts, The New York Times Book Review“A haunting story of a man in the grip of a painful and beautifully articulated spiritual malaise.” —Publishers Weekly
McGrath's (Port Mongo) latest tale concerns Charlie, a psychiatrist, and his dysfunctional life and family. A distant father and alcoholic mother have left their marks on him, his rivalry with older brother Walter has festered unabated for years, and Charlie gamely maintains on-again, off-again relationships with his ex-wife, Agnes, and his sometime lover, Nora. Agnes's brother committed suicide while Charlie was treating him for post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the many ghosts haunting the cobwebby mansion of Charlie's mind. Frequent references to Manhattan's East Sixties, the Son of Sam case, and passing glimpses of the World Trade Center make this very much a New York novel. The denouement will not surprise longtime readers of McGrath's fiction, though it probably won't surprise many other readers either. This is a book more to be admired than embraced. The uncompromising development of its initial premise is carried out with a chilly skill that exactly duplicates the professional approach of its central character, the "alienist." Recommended for all public libraries east of the Hudson and for others where literary fiction is in demand.--Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
"McGrath at his dark-hearted best." -O, The Oprah Magazine"Beautifully crafted and paced, Trauma [is] either a superb psychological thriller or a masterly evocation of modern alienation and despair. . . . A terrific literary entertainment, one that will keep you on edge." -The Washington Post "Full of sensitive, well-observed touches [and] elegant when it needs to be. . . . McGrath makes us see that our own minds are the most haunted of houses." -Los Angeles Times"Ambitious. . . . McGrath uses his potent storytelling powers to draw us into [his narrator's] fevered brain and convey his emotional distress." -The New York Times"The inversion of roles, the blurring of the boundaries between the rational and the irrational, the violence, the twisted sexual passions, the slipperiness of memory: these are familiar themes in McGrath's fiction. Here they are recombined in powerful and imaginative ways. Trauma is a gripping psychological thriller. McGrath's prose is taut and lean; his way with characters is deft; and his explorations of the dark side of human nature are disturbing. And at the novel's centre, the descent of its narrator from a false sense of superiority into a pit of madness and despair is handled with great skill." -Andrew Scull, The Times Literary Supplement"Tortuous, often gripping...The novel is aptly titled, since trauma can be said to be the origin and the end of its insidiously uncoiling developments." -Sven Birkerts, The New York Times Book Review"A haunting story of a man in the grip of a painful and beautifully articulated spiritual malaise." -Publishers Weekly
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