The Island

Wright's latest horror novel is almost plotless, and initially he seems to have had difficulty finding its rhythm. Once he has established the unusual premise, however, the narrative builds to an eerie pitch as the cast of charactersmost of whom are guests at Many Pines, a dilapidated resort in the Adirondackscome under the spell of the cold, yearning, not quite dead people who have been inhabiting the bottom of the nearby lake for 10 years. The story centers on Arnaut Berge, the sweet-natured owner of Many Pines, whose wife drowned in the lake some years ago, and on Lynette Meyer, whose husband recently met a similar fate. Both Arnaut and Lynette become increasingly preoccupied, even comforted, by a dreamy loneliness. They, and almost all the other characters, ultimately abandon themselves to bittersweet fantasies of loss and cold, leaving them vulnerable to the mindless forces of death reaching out from the chilling waters. Wright (Strange Seed) evokes a surreal, pervasively melancholy atmosphere that eventually captures the reader's imagination. (April)