- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; Mass Market Paperback edition (2 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753817853
- ISBN-13: 978-0753817858
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.4 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 706,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Lost Souls
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Review
" It is, above all, American in syntax and rhythm and for an outsider like Collins, albeit one who has lived there for a long time, that is a great achievement... His mastery of style, moment and place, gives it a curious vitality which is thoroughly compelling." (JAY RAYNER OBSERVER )
"On occasion, his writing blends the commonplace and the uncanny in a manner reminiscent of the films of David Lynch. The best thing about Lost Souls, however, is the tortured voice of its narrator." (STEPHEN AMIDON SUNDAY TIMES )
"The real interest of the book lies... in its dissection of a run-down society.... The novel reads like a report from the front line. It is satisfyingly truthful. Its plain bleak matter-of-fact tone is curiously invigorating. One grows weary after all of those fanciful novelist with a talent for playful invention. It's good to come on one who tells you how it is. Collins is such a writer." (ALLAN MASSIE, THE SCOTSMAN )
"The Limerick-born Collins has been described as "the thinking man's John Grisham", but that is less than just. He has a strength and emotional charge that remind you of Patricia Highsmith at her finest." (DAILY MAIL )
"What elevates this work beyond the workaday and humdrum thriller is the author's self-conscious knowingness.... Collins brilliantly deploys a cold, precise prose in his descriptions of the theatricalities and absurdities of American life... At the moment it would seem that Michael Collins is one of the chief practitioners within this genre and Lost Souls is a good example of its possibilities." (IRISH TIMES )
"Collins's reputation as one of the finest chroniclers of American life, seen at its darkest and most decayed, is held up admirably by this fine, chilling offering." (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
"Michael Collins is far more than a thriller writer... He's an astute chronicler of small-town dead-end lives, an Irish emigre whose commentaries on American mores and movtivations put him on the Booker shortlist for 200." (MARY FLANAGAN INDEPENDENT )
"An engrossing thriller with a social conscience and a spellbinding portrait of a community under pressure, Lost Souls is as close to perfection as a tale of flaws, foibles and failure can hope to come." (IRISH INDEPENDENT )
"Collins, clearly, is keen to create a mood, an atmosphere, a sombre snapshot of a society that has been driven to a dark place by greed and pain. He achieves this, no doubt." (THE GUARDIAN )
"Collins has caught the sheer weirdness of small-town America... the story achieves a rich and unexpected pathos." (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"On occasion, his writing blends the commonplace and the uncanny in a manner reminiscent of the films of David Lynch. The best thing about Lost Souls, however, is the tortured voice of its narrator." (STEPHEN AMIDON SUNDAY TIMES )
"The real interest of the book lies... in its dissection of a run-down society.... The novel reads like a report from the front line. It is satisfyingly truthful. Its plain bleak matter-of-fact tone is curiously invigorating. One grows weary after all of those fanciful novelist with a talent for playful invention. It's good to come on one who tells you how it is. Collins is such a writer." (ALLAN MASSIE, THE SCOTSMAN )
"The Limerick-born Collins has been described as "the thinking man's John Grisham", but that is less than just. He has a strength and emotional charge that remind you of Patricia Highsmith at her finest." (DAILY MAIL )
"What elevates this work beyond the workaday and humdrum thriller is the author's self-conscious knowingness.... Collins brilliantly deploys a cold, precise prose in his descriptions of the theatricalities and absurdities of American life... At the moment it would seem that Michael Collins is one of the chief practitioners within this genre and Lost Souls is a good example of its possibilities." (IRISH TIMES )
"Collins's reputation as one of the finest chroniclers of American life, seen at its darkest and most decayed, is held up admirably by this fine, chilling offering." (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
"Michael Collins is far more than a thriller writer... He's an astute chronicler of small-town dead-end lives, an Irish emigre whose commentaries on American mores and movtivations put him on the Booker shortlist for 200." (MARY FLANAGAN INDEPENDENT )
"An engrossing thriller with a social conscience and a spellbinding portrait of a community under pressure, Lost Souls is as close to perfection as a tale of flaws, foibles and failure can hope to come." (IRISH INDEPENDENT )
"Collins, clearly, is keen to create a mood, an atmosphere, a sombre snapshot of a society that has been driven to a dark place by greed and pain. He achieves this, no doubt." (THE GUARDIAN )
"Collins has caught the sheer weirdness of small-town America... the story achieves a rich and unexpected pathos." (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
JAY RAYNER, OBSERVER
" It is, above all, American in syntax and rhythm and for an outsider like Collins, albeit one who has lived there for a long time, that is a great achievement... His mastery of style, moment and place, gives it a curious vitality which is thoroughly compelling."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
It was past midnight when I got home Halloween night. Read the first page
Front Cover | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was past midnight when I got home Halloween night. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a longtime fan of Collins' work from his Irish novels and short stories to his American novels, I can say with certainty, that with Lost Souls he has arrived! This is his finest novel to date, a deceptively simple story concerning the mysterious death of a child. What may seem a police procedural at first, turns into one of the most crafted works you'll ever read.
The prose is haunting, capturing the Lost Souls who inhabit this novel, from the divorced cop at the centre of this mystery to a surreal mayor and chief who try to orchestrate a coverup in this small unnamed town.
To speak of plot is to diminish the brilliance and genius of Collins' work in Lost Souls. The connective tissue from scene to scene is peppered with such sociological deftness and believability, that it makes your skin crawl. In an age of the BIG novel of ideas, Collins has mastered the smallness of existence, the day to day essence of how we survive in this day and age.
I was reminded of The Corrections a little, though this is a very different book, but the font of both writers genius is apparent. Collins inhabits the crime genre in a way Chandler inhabited it, bringing a literary sensibility and roundness to his characters. The quote on the jacket says, "A thinking mans John Grisham!" This has nothing to do with Grisham. This is so off. Lost Souls is a hybrid of a literary classic coupled with a Chandleresque nod to suspense and mystery.
The prose is haunting, capturing the Lost Souls who inhabit this novel, from the divorced cop at the centre of this mystery to a surreal mayor and chief who try to orchestrate a coverup in this small unnamed town.
To speak of plot is to diminish the brilliance and genius of Collins' work in Lost Souls. The connective tissue from scene to scene is peppered with such sociological deftness and believability, that it makes your skin crawl. In an age of the BIG novel of ideas, Collins has mastered the smallness of existence, the day to day essence of how we survive in this day and age.
I was reminded of The Corrections a little, though this is a very different book, but the font of both writers genius is apparent. Collins inhabits the crime genre in a way Chandler inhabited it, bringing a literary sensibility and roundness to his characters. The quote on the jacket says, "A thinking mans John Grisham!" This has nothing to do with Grisham. This is so off. Lost Souls is a hybrid of a literary classic coupled with a Chandleresque nod to suspense and mystery.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Small town America, a child is found dead by the side of the road on Halloween Night. The local football star is implicated and the cover-up springs into motion to preserve the team's chances of winning the next day. Lawrence, the local cop, investigates but is himself compromised because of favours owed to the mayor. We get drawn into Lawrence's shabby life, and realise that our hero is himself a loser, caught in weaknesses of his own. This book unfolds into a complex plot where nothing is as it seems. But somehow I feel I've been there before? Haven't we met corrupt mayors of small towns before? Complicit police chiefs, useless officers? Peter Benchley in "Jaws" did it better and more dramatically perhaps. Nevertheless, it is a compelling thriller - not perhaps the best, but fine to read on the train for a few days. Maybe its not worth a very long review - its "OK".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The story begins with the discovery of the body of a little girl who appears to have been killed in a hit-and-run, through the eyes of the policeman who has found the body and is meant to investigate the case, while getting sucked deeper and deeper into power games.
As the characters' lives intertwine in an ever-growing circle and the plot twists and turns, I was glad for the short chapters that make it the perfect read on a commute!
On the downside, it seems to round up in a bit of a rush, leaving a few questions unanswered, but still a good read.
As the characters' lives intertwine in an ever-growing circle and the plot twists and turns, I was glad for the short chapters that make it the perfect read on a commute!
On the downside, it seems to round up in a bit of a rush, leaving a few questions unanswered, but still a good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lost Souls? I lost the will to live!
When I picked up Michael Collins' 'Lost Souls' I expected it to be the 'fast paced and psychologically intense literary thriller' that the jacket promised, but as they say, don't... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Bjorn
ratcheting up the tension
I loved The Resurrectionists and there is always a strong chance that the second book by the same author will be a let down. The first hundred or so pages were exactly that. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by the scribbler
American Psyche!
This is Collins' best work by far, a tight suspense story deftly peppered with his usual social consciousness. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2003
Quintessential Collins
Michael Collins continues the mastery of his art form using the struggles of lower-middle America as his canvas. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2003
A Guilty Pleasure with Deceptive Depth (Amazing!)
In a perfect balancing act, Lost Souls brings a cinematic starkness coupled with brilliant pacy writing to this "American Existentialist" work, and creates a page turner that keeps... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2003 by mark johnson
Bone Chilling Prose Will Make You Weep
This is simply Collins' best book to date, and that's saying something since he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize already in 2000 for The Keepers of Truth. Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2003 by "r_jones2"
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