The Eighth Day
Thornton Wilder
**This is an amazing WHO-DONE-IT?? A definite ''can-not-put-down'' thriller!!** ***At the turn of the century, an Illinois man is sentenced to death for the murder of a close friend, but escapes to South America to build a new world for himself and his family.*** In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent twenty months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched The Eighth Day, ***a tale set in a mining town in southern Illinois about two families blasted apart by the apparent murder of one father by the other.*** The miraculous escape of the accused killer, John Ashley, on the eve of his execution and his flight to freedom triggers a ***powerful story tracing the fate of his, and the victim’s, wife and children.*** **At once a murder mystery and a philosophical story, The Eighth Day is a “suspenseful & deeply moving” *(front cover The New York Times)* work of classic stature that has been hailed as a great American epic.**
