The country under heaven A novel

Ostensibly a western-meets-horror mash-up, The Country under Heaven is a testament to the ability of the human soul to survive and heal in face of both earthly and otherworldly sorrow. Ovid Vesper fought on the front lines for the Union during the Civil War. When a cannonball ripped past Ovid's head at the Battle of Antietam, it also ripped apart a seam in the universe. This ripple in space and time invited a terrible being, the Craither, into the world and gave Ovid the gift of prescient visions. When the war ends, Ovid travels the American West on his devoted horse. He helps the ghost of a young woman out her killer in Missouri. He escapes from a hell mount hidden deep in the plains of Kansas. He places a corpse at his ancestral place of peace in Montana Territory. The Craither looms ominously, and Ovid longs for peace, love, home. It's unclear until the very end whether Ovid will find it. With an almost Jungian perspective of the collective unconscious, Durbin (A Green and Ancient Light, 2016) teaches us that resolution happens deep within all our hearts. Readers of The Country under Heaven will be transformed by this book.

Durbin (A Green and Ancient Light) skillfully combines cosmic horror tropes with American frontier fiction in this standout historical horror novel set in the Old West. Union Army soldier Ovid Vesper survives the Civil War, but at a cost; following a near-death experience in the Battle of Antietam, he sees an unnatural being that he dubs the Craither, describing the visions as "like I wasn't really beholding the thing itself, but the way it bent the world by being there." He's horrified by this apparition he alone can see and assailed by guilt, believing that his return to consciousness after the battle is what enabled the Craither to enter the world, "like someone ducking through a door behind you while it's open." Vesper encounters the Craither multiple times over the following years as he wanders the country investigating supernatural oddities, such as a man who was fatally mauled by some unknown beast in Texas and the bizarre appearance of two entirely green children in Missouri. The cases are distinct and fascinating, and Durbin's vivid prose makes both Vesper and the colorful cast that surrounds him come alive. This is Lovecraftian fiction at its finest. (May)

It's 1880, and former Union soldier Ovid is still struggling to find his way. During Antietam, he nearly died from a blast that also opened a crack between dimensions, both giving Ovid "the sight" and allowing monsters through. Ovid's journey is told in vignettes, and readers will quickly fall in step with him as he visits old friends, rides into town on his trusty horse, works cattle drives, stops bank robbers, gets involved in shootouts, and visits traveling carnivals. Each stop has Ovid battling monsters both real and supernatural, but the action pauses with interlude chapters as he contemplates his life, the after-effects of war, and his connection to other worlds. The danger escalates as the book proceeds, with the monsters becoming more numerous and the barriers between worlds beginning to thin, but Ovid becomes more determined to find peace for himself, his friends, and the creatures he encounters. VERDICT Durbin's (A Green and Ancient Light) stellar and unique novel combines lots of heart, a plot that replicates the best of classic Westerns, and awesome cosmic horror into one terrifying, thought-provoking, and entertaining package. Recommend to those who enjoyed Lone Women by Victor LaValle.