Aquarium

‘One of the most exciting writers at work today.’ * Australian *
’[Vann] is the real thing—a mature, risk-taking and fantastically adept fiction writer who dares go to the darkest places, explore their most appalling corners.’ * Observer *
‘Vann’s prose is as pure as a gulp of water from an Alaskan stream.’ * Financial Times *
‘One of the most darkly talented and unsettling writers working today.’ * Guardian *
‘Vann is a brave writer, daring to write about and depict things that most other authors would baulk at, but that’s what makes him so good—that unflinching eye for the darkness you could potentially find in any of us, given the wrong chain of events.’ * Independent *
‘A kind of modern fairy tale…Unlike Vann’s other novels, which exist in a closed system of violence and despair, this story offers redemption…Vann’s novels are striking, uncompromising portraits of American life; here is another exceptional example.’ * Kirkus Reviews *
‘Since electrifying the literary world five years ago with his debut novel, Legend of a Suicide, Vann has racked up an astonishing number of international awards. This lovely, wrenching novel should add to that list.’ – STARRED Review * Library Journal *
‘Elegantly written, emotionally intense…Vann crafts a moving exploration of the boundaries we draw around ourselves to stay safe and unchanged.’ * Publishers Weekly *
‘As ever, Vann is good on gloom and at creating an atmosphere of queasy delight.’ * Weekend Australian *
‘David Vann has been one of the most thrilling discoveries of the past decade or so.’ * Stephen Romei *
‘Delicate, coming-of-age sensuality.’ * New York Times *
‘Aquarium virtually bends light, plunging the reader into the relentless darkness of tormented souls in a splintered family…His language hits the reader like shrapnel in a metalworker’s studio—fragmented and sharp-fitting for novels so packed with shattering turns.’ * Seattle Times *
‘[Vann] sees the darkest depths, and takes the reader there…his best book yet.’ * Otago Daily Times *
‘Aquarium is a powerful novel of family and loss, a coming of age story of secrets and lies, a mystery of love and hate. It is profoundly moving, utterly beautiful and almost unbearably painful, a breathtaking achievement of a book.’ * Star *
‘David Vann’s work has a spare, parable-like quality…[he] writes with deft control and a gift for prose propelled as effortlessly as a school of fish.’ * Financial Times *
‘Vann’s provocative prose is filled with a sense of wonder and beauty, even when the lives he describes are tragic.’ * LA Times *
‘Aquarium feels like a soft thing lined with blood: a small, resolutely inward-looking book, full or ornate sentences with a darkness that frequently makes you want to squint and flinch as you turn the pages.’ * Guardian *
‘David Vann is surely one of the most powerful writers working today.’ * New Zealand Herald *
‘The small cast of characters in Aquarium is expertly drawn and their ethical and moral dilemmas will haunt you beyond the page…This is a novel that leaves you with the looming question about whether you need to believe in fairytales to free yourself of the past.’ * Echo *
‘While loss, abandonment, pain and anger bubble away below the surface here, Vann finally lets himself, his characters and the reader come up for air, with the unprecedented possibility of hope redemption and forgiveness.’ * Otago Daily Times, 2015’s Literary Standouts *

Published in twenty languages, David Vann’s internationally bestselling books have won fifteen prizes, including best foreign novel in France and Spain, and appeared on seventy-five Best Books of the Year lists in a dozen countries. David is currently a Professor at the University of Warwick in England and Honorary Professor at the University of Franche-Comté in France.

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