In Darkness

Nick Lake weaves Haiti's dark past with its painful present into a story that is gripping, moving and uplifting. This novel dances with extraordinary confidence from one era to another, mixing the contemporary with the historical to create a rich and fascinating dialogue across the centuries ... Stunningly original and hard-hitting * Will Sutcliffe * In Darkness is both violent and subtle, unexpectedly reminding me of The Wire. Characters, settings, and the half-believed Haitian vodou religion are handled with patience and complexity, even in a terrifying, poverty-stricken setting ... Lake doesn't shy away from Shorty's immersion in gang culture, nor the profanity that permeates it and Short's own participation in its brutality and murder ... In Darkness is a serious, nuanced, challenging novel -- Patrick Ness * Guardian * [Lake] has given Shorty a vivid, unforgettable voice; this is about a lifelong battle for survival, and the hard-won ending is incredibly moving * The Times * In Darkness is both a searing indictment of man's inhumanity to man and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit * Daily Mail * Remarkable ... Mr. Lake's elegant, restrained prose and distinct characters will reward adults and older teenagers able to brave a story with strong language, harrowing scenes of brutality and an almost painful stab of joy at the end * Wall Street Journal * In Darkness is complex, human and enormously gripping ... Linking the Haitian ganglands with a world where magic happens and death sometimes does not, it is a novel that feels, in parts, like an episode of The Wire as retold by a Cloud Atlas-era David Mitchell ... Which is to say that In Darkness is brutal and stark, poetic and soulful - and definitely worth keeping the light on for * Scotland on Sunday *