A Prayer for the Dying (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Stewart O’Nan
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The late 1860’s
- Setting: Friendship, Wisconsin
- Principal Characters: Jacob Hansen, Doc Gustafson, Marta Hansen
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Rural or country life, Mental illness, Civil War, Death or dying, Veterans, Undertakers or undertaking, Diseases, Epidemics, Horror, Diphtheria
- Locales: Friendship, WI
A gifted young author, Stewart O’Nan has already produced a number of books, including a collection of stories and four novels. The Pittsburgh native and former aerospace engineer has received recognition for his work, having won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for In the Walled City (1993) and having been named by the literary magazine Granta in 1996 as one of the nation’s best young novelists. A Prayer for the Dying propels him to what may be the top of his craft. It is not that the themes he uses are new: Albert Camus long ago inoculated readers against the...
[The entire page is 1830 words long]
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