Warrener's Beastie

In this magnificent modern rendering of a classic Norse myth, award-winning writer William Trotter transports the reader to faraway Vardinoy in the exotic Faeroe Islands, the remote Scandinavian locale that has bewitched Allen Warrener since his first and only visit there twenty years before. Now middle-aged, Allen decides that to revitalize his wearisome existence he must return to Vardinoy, the island that has haunted and inspired him for most of his life — and so wanders unwittingly into circumstances far more sinister, and potentially far more dangerous, than he ever could have supposed. Among the many temptations and risks of this increasingly mystifying land there is the creature, the legendary undersea monster that becomes a metaphor as captivatingly elusive as the Golden Fleece; Andreas Dahl, a famous painter, whose appearance on the island seems too fortuitous a coincidence; and Elsuba, the woman who still mesmerizes Allen even decades after their affair.

Uncommonly suspenseful and richly atmospheric, Warrener’s Beastie is a hypnotic literary adventure that will entrance readers — even as it reminds them to be careful about what they wish for.