In the Country of the Blind

Sixty years after the publication of his first novel, Cat Man, Edward Hogland is publishing his twenty-fifth book at the age of eighty-three. This capstone novel, set in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, introduces Press, a stockbroker going blind. Press has lost his job and his wife and is trying to figure out his next move, holed up in his Vermont cabin surrounded by a hippy commune, drug runners, farmers-gone-bust, blood-thirsty auctioneers, and general ne'er-do-wells. Solace and purpose come from the unlikeliest sources as he learns to navigate his new landscape without sight. Hoagland, himself, is going blind, and through this evocative, unsentimental novel, we experience the world closing in around Press, the rising panic of uncertainty, the isolation of exile, the increasing dependence upon the kindness of strangers, and a whole new appreciation of the world just beyond sight.

Edward Hoagland has written more than two dozen books in sixty years, including the novel Children are Diamonds (Arcade), and his recent short story collection Devil’s Tub (Arcade). He worked in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus while attending Harvard, and he later traveled the world from Yemen to Antarctica to Assam, writing for national magazines. He has received numerous literary awards and taught at ten colleges and universities. A native New Yorker, he divides his time between Martha’s Vineyard and a farmhouse in the mountains of northern Vermont. (Barton, VT).