The Marmot Drive

A Novel

Ebook
On sale Sep 04, 2019 | 288 Pages | 9780593080818

The Marmot Drive, a novel of extraordinary force and craftsmanship, deals with certain events on two summer days in an out-of-the-way Connecticut village. The occasion is the decision of the villagers of Tunxis to launch their long-debated drive to rid a nearby valley of an infestation of marmots.* But the drive is merely the catalyst. Its tensions and rigors release a storm of impulses and long-hidden traits in the people involved, so that in the end the natural drama is engulfed by the human drama.
 
 
*Marmot: … certain stout-bodied, shortlegged rodents… They have coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very small ears, and live in burrows, hibernating in winter… The American species are called woodchucks, ground hogs, or whistlers.
John Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, in 1914 and lived there until 1925, when his family returned to the United States. He studied at Yale and Cambridge, served for a time as Sinclair Lewis’s secretary, and then worked several years as a journalist. Beginning in 1947, he devoted his time mainly to writing fiction. He won the Pulitzer Prize, taught for two decades at Yale, and was president of the Authors League of America and chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Hersey died in 1993. View titles by John Hersey

About

The Marmot Drive, a novel of extraordinary force and craftsmanship, deals with certain events on two summer days in an out-of-the-way Connecticut village. The occasion is the decision of the villagers of Tunxis to launch their long-debated drive to rid a nearby valley of an infestation of marmots.* But the drive is merely the catalyst. Its tensions and rigors release a storm of impulses and long-hidden traits in the people involved, so that in the end the natural drama is engulfed by the human drama.
 
 
*Marmot: … certain stout-bodied, shortlegged rodents… They have coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very small ears, and live in burrows, hibernating in winter… The American species are called woodchucks, ground hogs, or whistlers.

Author

John Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, in 1914 and lived there until 1925, when his family returned to the United States. He studied at Yale and Cambridge, served for a time as Sinclair Lewis’s secretary, and then worked several years as a journalist. Beginning in 1947, he devoted his time mainly to writing fiction. He won the Pulitzer Prize, taught for two decades at Yale, and was president of the Authors League of America and chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Hersey died in 1993. View titles by John Hersey

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