Surreal Estate

Book excerpt: SURREAL ESTATE, David Marlow's wondrous and terrifying novel, calls to mind the cunning satire of Thomas Berger and Fay Weldon, the emotional vigor of A.M. Homes, and the plot-driven intensity of Stephen King. Dewey Walsey and his pregnant wife, Judith, have fled Hollywood to escape the disastrous, career-wrecking failure of "Silver Rainbow", the western epic he wrote. Their peaceful summer on an unpopulated island in Maine turns ominous as strange and surreal events begin to occur around their isolated cottage. Dewey begins to wonder if Judith's history of mental illness isn't to blame for these bizarre occurrences. On the day of a monstrous early winter blizzard, the electricity fails and Judith goes into labor, weeks ahead of schedule, and suffers a profound nervous breakdown. Alone against the elements, Dewey must deliver their premature baby while also caring for his wife's sudden and harrowing predicament. Alternating the reins of narration, Dewey and Judith each clarify their side of what they say really happened. Along the way, Marlow keeps tightening the suspense until the macabre puzzle comes together in a hair-raising finale. SURREAL ESTATE is an unsettling, darkly comic tale, full of startling secrets and never-racking surprises.