Cover of The Ravine
Read Time: ~5 hr

The Ravine

by Paul Quarrington (2008)

About this book

One morning in Don Mills, Phil and his brother Jay agree to let their friend Norman Kitchen tag along on an adventure down into a ravine — and what happens there at the hands of two pitiless teenagers changes all their lives forever. Years later the horrifying details are still unclear, smothered in layers of deliberate forgetting. Phil’s “ravine” is his attempt to make sense of things, to try to understand how everything went so wrong just as it seemed to be going so right. But The Ravine is also a Paul Quarrington novel, meaning that it’s hilarious and ingenious, quietly working its magic until the reader is at once heartbroken and hopeful. A darkly funny story about loss and redemption, The Ravine is also about how stories are made — how they can pull us out of disasters that seem too much for anyone to bear — and about how, sometimes, what we need to forgive ourselves for is not what we think it is at all.

Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraContemporary
Protagonist / CoreNotable Characters

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

Cover of Through Black Spruce

Through Black Spruce

Joseph Boyden

A haunting novel about identity, love, and loss by the author of Three Day RoadWill Bird is a legendary Cree bush pilot, now lying in a coma in a hospital in his hometown of Moose Factory, Ontario. His niece Annie Bird, beautiful and self-reliant, has returned from her own perilous journey to sit beside his bed. Broken in different ways, the two take silent communion in their unspoken kinship, and the story that unfolds is rife with heartbreak, fierce love, ancient blood feuds, mysterious disappearances, fires, plane crashes, murders, and the bonds that hold a family, and a people, together. As Will and Annie reveal their secretsthe tragic betrayal that cost Will his family, Annies desperate search for her missing sister, the famous model Suzannea remarkable saga of resilience and destiny takes shape. From the dangerous bush country of upper Canada to the drug-fueled glamour of the Manhattan club scene, Joseph Boyden tracks his characters with a keen eye for the telling detail and a rare empathy for the empty places concealed within the heart. Sure to appeal to readers of Louise Erdrich and Jim Harrison, Through Black Spruce establishes Boyden as a writer of startling originality and uncommon power.

Cover of Die Selbstmord-Schwestern

Die Selbstmord-Schwestern

Jeffrey Eugenides

Die Selbstmord-Schwestern is a celebrated work by Jeffrey Eugenides (Pulitzer Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

Cover of The age of magic

The age of magic

Ben Okri

The age of magic is a celebrated work by Ben Okri (Booker Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

Cover of This Is Not the End of the book

This Is Not the End of the book

Umberto Eco

This Is Not the End of the book is a celebrated work by Umberto Eco (Premio Strega), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

The Ravine by Paul Quarrington | Literally Just Books