Critical Praise

"Explodes in a tremendously disturbing conclusion. The ending of Caribou Island is amply foreshadowed, but the minor incidents that build to it are so believably presented that it still has the capacity to shock."

—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"Moving, powerful…. Vann’s people are hurtling irretrievably toward a dark outcome, and while putting the book down might save you from it, you can’t stop reading, just as you can’t unlearn its truths."

—Caitlin Roper, Los Angeles Times

"The writing is a marvel of concision and exactitude throughout…. Caribou Island reads as briskly and suggestively as a story sequence…but lingers in the mind with the gravity and heft of a longer narrative. Its interplay of incident and character gives it the feel of a 19th-century novel on the grand scale…. Caribou Island gets to places other novels can’t touch."

—Kevin Canty, New York Times Book Review

"Vann’s beautiful, spare portrait of a marriage’s end casts a singular spell."

—People

"Caribou Island builds to an horrific climax and stands as an engrossing and disturbing work of art."

—Alan Cheuse, NPR