Daniel O'Thunder
A Novel
La description
Set in the 1850s in London, England, Daniel O’Thunder interweaves the voices of several narrators to tell the story of a troubled but charismatic prize-fighting evangelist who challenges none other than the Devil to a battle in the ring.
A former pugilist with a right fist known as “The Hammer of Heaven,” O’Thunder disappeared for years before resurfacing as a crusading street preacher. He pursues a life in Christ, serving those in need, whether they be poor, homeless or in need of guidance. But on London’s dark streets, an evil presence is wreaking havoc and throwing into peril the lives of O’Thunder’s most vulnerable souls.
The novel inhabits the world of the theatre, the criminal underworld and the world of bare-knuckle prizefighting, then shifts to the wild west of North America, where O’Thunder meets his ultimate opponent in the desert of the B. C. Interior.
Récompenses
- Short-listed, Amazon.ca First Novel Award 2009
- Short-listed, Canadian Authors Association's Award for Fiction 2009
- Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award 2009
- Short-listed, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2009
Reviews
"A frightening, funny, moving, page-turning romp. "
- Steven Galloway, author of "The Cellist of Sarajevo"
"Weir's plot steps smartly, and the language crackles with the immediacy of shifting first-person voices. ..There are murders, rapes, hangings, prizefights, a city-wide riot, and lots of thrilling escapes. ..By the time the novel reaches its dramatic conclusion. ..the story has landed in a place somewhere between dementia and the supernatural. All of which makes for an historical novel that is a lot more fun and thrilling than what we have come to expect. "
- Quill & Quire
"Daniel O'Thunder, a pugilist-evangelist in the slums of Victorian England, is hell-bent on defeating the devil in the boxing ring. The ancient battle between evil and good plays out in a debut novel both outrageously funny and bizarrely creepy. "
- Library Journal
"If one unreliable narrator is enough to skew a book toward the fantastical, imagine the twists generated by four! In his first novel, veteran screenwriter Ian Weir calls on a quartet of witnesses to deliver the story of godly pug Daniel O'Thunder, proud son of Cork turned evangelical sermonizer, and it's a sign of his sure command that all are engaging, even when spinning bald-faced lies or subtle prevarications. ..This is wonderful stuff. "
- Georgia Straight
"Ambitious in scope and structure, [Daniel O'Thunder] speaks in pitch-perfect Victorian diction through a wide range of characters to relate the ultimate-stakes quarrel between the pugilist preacher Daniel O'Thunder and his ultimate adversary: The Devil Himself. "
- Vancouver Magazine
"'Dickensian' is an adjective too often misused in describing books set in Victorian England. It is, however, the perfect word for this superb novel, nominated for the Commonwealth Prize. Weir, an award-winning screenwriter and playwright, takes us right to the centre of London in 1815 with as brilliantly constructed a band of reprobates as Dickens ever saw. Marvellous from the first paragraph. "
- Globe & Mail
"Drenched in filthy Thames waters and coiffed in muttonchops, Weir’s outlandish tale is a top-shelf page-turner, with commentary on the fickle role of the writer thrown into the whole glorious, fractured mess. "
- Publishers Weekly
"Laced with blood thunder, sex, murder, rape, mayhem and miracles, Ian Wier's first novel is about good versus evil. ..from the outset, even if we haven't read the author's biography we know we are in skilled hands. "
- BC Bookworld
"Daniel O'Thunder smacks of London life a century and a half ago: drunken costermongers, beggars and whores, doing the Lord�s work amongst the dregs of the city, public hangings, Old Bailey, people with names like Nag and Fish...Weir's debut novel reads much like a play, moving from act to act, leaving the reader patiently waiting to get back to the next hair-raising episode."
- Sun Times
"A pugilist-turned-preacher returns to the boxing ring with the ultimate goal of going toe-to-toe with the devil�what more could you want? Weir's unique retelling of the Gospels, set in mid-19th-century London, is Charles Dickens meets Thom Jones...A knockout debut."
- National Post