An Ohio native, Tiffany McDaniel’s writing is inspired by the
rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land she knows. She is also
a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and artist.
The Summer That Melted Everything
is her debut novel.
‘A wildly riffing trumpet voluntary that sustains its thrilling
high notes from start to finish … A startlingly rich imagination
shouts its glorious arrival in this overwhelming narrative of sin,
redemption, love and death.’
*The Guardian*
'Tiffany McDaniel’s The Summer That Melted Everything is a
wonderfully original, profoundly unsettling, deeply moving novel
that delivers both the shock of fully realised reality and the deep
resonance of parable. This is a remarkable debut by a splendid
young writer.’
*Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer—Prize winning author of A Good
Scent from a Strange Mountain*
'In this bold and surprising debut novel, Tiffany McDaniel reveals
a new voice in contemporary fiction. At times comic, at times
heartbreaking, The Summer That Melted Everything, moves between the
future and the past, and gives us a window on a particular time,
the hell-hot summer of 1984, and a group of characters George
Orwell could not have imagined. In this world nothing is quite what
it seems, as mystery and revelation alternate, right up to the end.
At times surreal, magical, this story of a family and community
incorporates global warming, AIDS, discrimination, fear, mass
hysteria, lynching, and martyrdom, but in the end is a love story,
warning us not to be too quick in judging what is evil and what is
good.'
*Robert Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of Gap
Creek*
'Sometimes a book comes along that is so good that it defies all
descriptions, but I'll give it a shot anyway: Tiffany McDaniel's
astounding and heartbreaking The Summer That Melted Everything
reads as if Carson McCullers and Shirley Jackson got together with
Nathaniel Hawthorne in some celestial backwater and decided to
write the first truly great gothic coming-of-age novel of the
twenty-first century. There, I said it. Now read it.'
*Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil
All the Time*
'It is rare that a narrative makes me question my own beliefs. This
book did that very thing. A fine story with a message about truth,
trust, family, and the dangers of the devils among us.'
*Suzanne Palmieri, author of The Witch of Bourbon
Street*
'The Summer That Melted Everything is a blast of hellfire, humour,
and heartbreak that’s part Flannery O’Connor, part Stephen King,
and wholly original.'
*Lou Berney, author of The Long and Faraway Gone*
'A wondrous debut of a novel. Imagine To Kill a Mockingbird, seen
through the eyes of Neil Gaiman. McDaniel’s prose is rich and
magical, full of passages of exquisite, strange beauty that ache
with bitter truths and old sorrows. You'll not read anything else
like it.'
*James Sie, author of Still Life Las Vegas*
'Sometimes there is a novel so strange and beguiling it makes you
give up your world for another world, all the while that you are
reading it. Such a story is Tiffany McDaniel’s tale of an enchanted
boy — who might be the devil — welcomed into a family with no right
to their name, Bliss. It will frighten you, and charm you, and
break your heart if you allow it ... and you will allow it, because
once this world has hold of you, it won’t let you go.'
*Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author
The Deep End of the Ocean and Two if by Sea*
‘McDaniel opens up a thought-provoking world powered by increasing
suspense … A powerful debut.’
*Sunday Star Times*
‘Dark and wholly original … Gloriously Gothic.’
*Psychologies*
‘Hugely ambitious, stuffed with very vivid characters … A
fascinating, poignant story.’
*Radio 4 ‘Saturday Review’*
‘Fantastic…The Summer That Melted Everything is a novel you’ll want
to re-read.’
*Nudge Book*
‘There’s more than an echo of To Kill a Mockingbird here … though
Fielding’s journey from innocence to experience is a whole lot
darker than Scout’s … Atmosphere is key when it comes to southern
gothic, and the summer heat licks like hellfire through McDaniel’s
pages … The Summer That Melted Everything is a genuinely unnerving,
deliciously dark tale of the evil that lies in ordinary
people.’
*The Independent*
‘A hefty slice of deep south gothic’
*The Pool*
‘Gently written, allegorical, domestic, with myths of the
underworld explored like never before through the eyes of a man
looking back on his sins. One of the most beautiful books of the
year.’
*Listener*
‘A very fresh and different take on the southern gothic novel.’
*Bath Life*
‘The Summer that Melted Everything is inventive and provocative …
[A] meaty and relentlessly good story.’
*bookreporter*
‘When word gets out that the devil may be in Breathed, tensions and
temperatures will rise, and soon the town will find itself
enveloped in full-blown hysteria. A fantastic Jackson-esque debut
about rumours, fears, and beliefs.’
*BookRiot*
‘This debut novel shines with beauty and lyricism … Give this to
fans of atmospheric fiction, particularly those who enjoy the grit
of Donald Ray Pollock, the foreshadowing of Shirley Jackson, and
the mounting suspense of Peter Straub.’
*Library Journal*
‘[McDaniel] is capable of stirring powerful emotions … [A]n
ambitious novel that will invite thought and surely spark
discussion.’
*Booklist*
‘Tiffany McDaniel’s brilliant literary debut is a feast for the
mind. Her gifted language and stunning story craft shine a bright
light on human nature as she examines the face of good and evil. I
enjoyed every single word.’
‘A haunting Appalachian Gothic novel that calls into question the
nature of good and evil.’
*Akron Beacon Journal*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |