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Title details for Passersthrough by Peter Rock - Available

Passersthrough

by Peter Rock
Eric Jason Martin
Audiobook
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A father and his estranged daughter reconnect to try to understand a decades-old trauma in this haunting novel, part ghost story, part lyrical exploration of family, aging, and how we remember the past. At age eleven, Helen disappeared in the wilderness of Mount Rainier National Park while camping with her father, Benjamin. She was gone for almost a week before being discovered and returned to her family. It is now twenty-five years later, and after more than two decades of estrangement, Helen and Benjamin reconnect at his home in Portland, Oregon, to try to understand what happened during the days she was gone. Meanwhile, Benjamin meets an odd pair, a woman and boy who seem driven to help him learn more about Helen's disappearance and send him on a journey that will lead to a murder house, uncanny possession, and a bone-filled body of water known as Sad Clown Lake, a lake "that could only be found by getting lost, that was never in the same place twice." Passersthrough is a haunted, starkly lyrical exploration of family, memory, and the border between life and death.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 19, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781696607872
      • File size: 128721 KB
      • Duration: 04:28:10

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 14, 2022
      Rock (The Night Swimmers) offers an eerie account of the attempted reconciliation between an estranged father and daughter. Benjamin Hanson, 76, gets a visit from 36-year-old Helen, who wants to rebuild a relationship with him and begins by installing a recording device in his house. What follows is a mix of transcribed recordings of their conversations, which take place remotely while she stays in a motel, visiting him in Portland, Ore., from San Mateo, Calif. Benjamin chafes at the technology but acquiesces to use the fax machine, and she faxes him a message expressing a desire to understand a traumatic event from her childhood. When Helen was 11, she disappeared from the foot of Mt. Rainier. Gone for a week, her “misadventure” was never fully explained. Things get weird and complicated when a group who might be a family of ghosts shows up at Benjamin’s house. The family’s unnamed boy and girl suggest Benjamin hike to Sad Clown Lake. Rock draws on the mountain scenery to create a surreal atmosphere, culminating in a haunting scene of disaster. The result is an otherwise conventional family conflict that convincingly morphs into something genuinely bizarre. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Eric Martin's deliberate narration makes listening to this unusual novel about life's challenges both intriguing and troubling. The story of Benjamin, an elderly father, and his estranged daughter, Helen, explores what happened when she disappeared in Mount Rainier National Park at the age of 11. Martin plumbs the crevices of the father-daughter relationship and also portrays the two vagabonds who helped search for Helen. Martin gives each character a different attitude, each of which listeners will find unsettling. As he uses his voice like a scalpel, he gently reveals layers of the truth about what happened. The twisted and worrisome plot shows the need for understanding and reconciliation, when called for, as expressed in Martin's smooth and thoughtful delivery. R.O. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2022

      Rock's (The Night Swimmers) newest opens with such strangeness--a daughter stating that she only wants to communicate with her father via fax machine--that it's nearly impossible not to keep going. Listeners soon learn that the daughter, Helen, wishes to unpack a mysterious incident from her past but is unable to express herself directly. The narrative absolutely drips with dread, although Eric Jason Martin's matter-of-fact narration of Helen's father Benjamin suggests complete equanimity. Benjamin's acceptance of every disturbing happening demonstrates that Martin's approach is the correct one, although listeners may remain confused as to why Benjamin is so willing to immerse himself in the increasingly bizarre landscape and form relationships with unsettling passersby. The faxed transcripts used in place of in-person conversations is an odd choice for audio, but it doesn't detract for more than a moment. This is not a novel for listeners who want concrete answers, but rather for ones who gain satisfaction from eerie settings and disturbing moments that provide plenty of fodder for hypotheses and questions. VERDICT Recommended for fans of literary fiction/psychological horror blends like John Darnielle's Universal Harvester.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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