Scott Lax

 

THE YEAR THAT TREMBLED

a Novel by Scott Lax

 

1998, Paul S. Eriksson, Publisher (1st Edition, Hardcover)

2013, Gray & Co., Publisher (2nd Edition, Softcover)

 

VENGEANCE FOLLOWS

a Novel by Scott Lax

2013, Gray & Co., Publisher (Hardcover)

• James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review, March 1, 2014

"Scott Lax is a master wordsmith of the first order and once again demonstrates his talent and expertise with Vengeance Follows. A minor masterpiece of suspense and human nature, Vengeance Follows is a terrifically entertaining read from beginning to end. Very highly recommended."

 

• Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and New York Times #1 bestselling coauthor of Flags of Our Fathers and Nobody Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America

"Mesmerizing and masterful . . . Aching suspense . . . Gets inside the head of a lethal sociopath while maintaining a loving evocation of a quiet Ohio town with a Richard Russo–like respect for the human soul."

 

• Mary Doria Russell, 2005 Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of The Sparrow

"Lyrical and stark by turns, Vengeance Follows is as spare as a Hemingway story and as creepy as one by Poe."

 

• Josh Karp, author of A Futile and Stupid Gesture and Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of the Other Side of the Wind

"Lean, compelling, and impossible to put down. I plowed through Scott Lax's Vengeance Follows and enjoyed every minute of a book written by an author at the top of his game.

 

• Phillip Gardner, author of Someone To Crawl Back To

"Beautifully written and memorable… a story of poignant love, brutal loss, and triumphant renewal, a testament to the human spirit against all odds."

 

• Shelly Costa, author of You Cannoli Die Once

"A spare and elegant tale about wayward grief on a collision course with what Hannah Arendt termed 'the banality of evil.' Set in a small town in Ohio, the story hurtles toward a fierce inevitability, and you will find yourself wondering whether mere human goodness is enough to alter its course. In Scott Lax's hands, how this question gets worked out through closely drawn characters, and through crimes old and new, achieves a level of real artistry."

 

• The Norwegian American newspaper, Rosalie Grosch,

 "Scott Lax, himself a Norwegian American, is a craftsman who has skillfully created this story by using words and pictures that breathe life and meaning into love and hate, solitude and grief, loneliness and friendship…he writes with compelling simplicity, clarity, and drive that makes it difficult to put this beautifully written novel down.

 

• The Denver Post, Tom Walker, Book Editor

 The Year That Trembled is one of 1998's Milestones in Fiction... A powerful coming of age story of a group of friends who are waiting to learn their fate in the selective service lottery that will determine whether they will be called on to fight in the Vietnam war... Those of us who came of age in those years remember the fear, the soul searching we went through. Lax captures the mood of the era and tells a strong tale of love, brotherly and otherwise."

 

• Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers, Election, and Little Children

The Year That Trembled is funny, nostalgic and troubling all at once. Scott Lax brings a tumultuous era back to life, with all its pain, excitement and complexity intact."

 

• The Norwegian American, Rosalie Grosch

"Powerfully written, hauntingly beautiful, and touching, The Year That Trembled is a vivid word picture of the troubling times young people faced living in the Vietnam War years...One can't help but feel deep empathy not only for the young people in this novel, facing a world of uncertainty, but also for all the young men and women today who live with fear of the unknown."

 

• Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winner for criticism, New York Times #1 best-selling author, author of Mark Twain, a Life

"Reading The Year That Trembled is like discovering a lost Beatles album. With perfect pitch for voices and artifacts, Scott Lax bathes us in the painful, sad, sweet music of the last hopeful time; a time when young American men, pulled toward the killing fields of an awful war, still dared to dream of strawberry fields forever."

 

• The Midwest Book Review

"Articulate with passion, humor and heartbreak, The Year That Trembled brings back a tumultuous time of conflict and pain endured by so many in such a diverse period in our country and our families."

 

• The Norwegian American, Rosalie Grosch

"Powerfully written, hauntingly beautiful, and touching, The Year That Trembled is a touching word picture of the troubling times young people faced living in the Vietnam War years…One can't help but feel empathy not only for the young people in this novel, facing a world of uncertainty, but also for all the young men and women today who live with fear of the unknown."

 

• Ann Hood, Author of The Knitting Circle and Somewhere off the Coast of Maine

"'Life in America felt as if it were being recast, reshaped, and even redeemed.' In his lovely prose, Lax returns us to that time and reminds us of how it was to live and love then."

 

• Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, National Endowment of the Arts Fellow

"The Year That Trembled is an affecting, funny, poignant novel about a subject that many lived but only Scott Lax has written so well about. It's very fine."

 

• Vietnam Veterans Magazine

"Clever plot…this fast-paced, dialogue-driven book contains serious themes and a compelling story."

 

• Samantha Gillison, author of The King of America and Undiscovered Country

"Scott Lax has written a lovely novel, full of wisdom, sadness and joy that honestly and heartbreakingly tells the story of young men confronting the Vietnam War."