The Hidden : A Novel
Author(s): Tobias Hill
“An unusual, exhilarating hybrid of high-stakes, propulsive narrative; erudite, yet breezy summations of specialized historical data; and strikingly evocative language. . . .The novel’s ideas are explored with stylish rigor and a rare boldness made all the more powerful by its surprising lyricism. The setting and many of the themes in THE HIDDEN call to mind Don DeLillo’s novel The Names.” — New York Times Book Review
From PEN/Macmillan award-winning novelist and poet Tobias Hill comes The Hidden, a gripping story of a naïve newcomer whose arrival at a high-stakes archaeological dig of ancient Spartan ruins unearths long-buried secrets. Interweaving scenes of ancient Sparta with present-day events in a fascinating study of group dynamics, Hill cuts to the heart of the games people play to stay in control. Written with astonishing grace and power, The Hidden is a novel about secrets and the true cost of fulfilling one’s desires.
Review(s):
“[A] high-stakes, propulsive narrative. . . . The novel’s ideas are explored with stylish rigor and a rare boldness made all the more powerful by its surprising lyricism.
“A chilly existential thriller . . . dazzling. . . . Hill’s use of the thriller structure to make broader commentary about modern life provides many rewarding and intelligent turns. . . . The evocations of Greece and historical details of Sparta are excellent.”
“Ancient and modern Greece meet in this ambitious . . . story of an archaeological dig whose members have a hidden agenda. . . . The talented Hill is fizzing with ideas. . . . Shocking. . . . Hill’s grasp of history is . . . impressive.”
“Sharply evocative prose. . . . The author’s ability to depict the dusty backroads of Greece combined with a palpable overlay of dread is remarkable and unsettling. The background provided about Sparta is intense.”
“Apart from everything else that this novel is a beautifully paced thriller, a meditation on loss, guilt, obsession...it is also one of the finest novels written so far about this, our age of terror.”
“Hill keeps the tension building to a climax which features the most unpleasant final image I’ve come across in a long time. Quite brilliant.”
“[An] elegant, sinister novel…Grippingly good.”
“Secrets, codes, joltingly painful discoveries: the themes which underpinned Tobias Hill’s previous novels . . . are back to full advantage in his new book THE HIDDEN, a tightly wrought, fast-paced literary thriller set in southern Greece. . . . Superbly realized. . . . Hill is a poet as well as a novelist, and his prose is always evocative, fresh and exact. . . . This dark and tense novel renders that experience of discovery and disillusionment with elegantly chilling skill.”
“THE HIDDEN is a cunningly contrived novel about a post 9/11 world in which there can be no cetainties and no real solutions.”
“Resonant with classical myth, this is a rich, rewarding story of the outsider—the existential loner searching for his place in the world.”
ISBN: 9780061768255