REVIEWS

Trondheim

“An X-ray picture of the subcutaneous breaks and sprains in a rocky relationship. When their son collapses, an unhappy couple travels to his bedside, leaving behind none of their exquisitely described marital baggage … Irish writer James’ delicate, incisive novel […] captures with forensic accuracy the subtle tensions in the marriage. … [Their son’s] medical situation is acute and dramatic, but the women’s marital troubles, mundane and chronic, are the real subject of this extraordinary and meticulous book.” 
— Kirkus (starred review)

“… an intelligent character-driven story of a lesbian couple whose lives are upended by news of their 20-year-old son’s heart attack … a poignant meditation on grief, perseverance, and the complications of love.” 
— Publisher’s Weekly

“Hospital time has a particular and peculiar quality, and Trondheim is dedicated to capturing the way it unfolds. The sensation of continual anxiety and continual boredom, the fits and starts of activity, are closely observed. Here, time and hope are united.  …  in James’s careful depiction of the couple, we feel how their history has left them isolated from each other, even as they try to navigate the strain of their son’s collapse. … As Pierre’s medical situation evolves, the book — much like Lil and Alba themselves — seems to lift its head up to consider other matters, stepping outside the hospital and into the fresh air. And though the episodes that follow remain fraught with danger … it’s danger of a different, more exuberant kind, laced with reckless discovery. Toward the end of the novel, the meaning of the seasonal backdrop shifts, and questions emerge about faith, superstition and the possibility of miracles. Those questions are sincere but not cloying, and never dogmatic; they are framed as part of a natural response to catastrophe. Because superstition, belief, hope: They’re all complicated. They may be part of the type of storytelling Alba deplores, and yet they also work hand in hand with the religious faith she clings to. In the end, James seems to suggest, that contradiction is part of what makes her, and perhaps all of us, human.”
— Katie Kitamura, New York Times Book Review

“James’s new novel is a deep dive into a family navigating a crisis. It follows two mothers waiting in the I.C.U. to see if their son will wake up from a coma, and through that framework, explores their lives, their relationship, their beliefs and much more.” 
— Editor’s Choice, New York Times Book Review

“A crisis exposes faultlines in a marriage in Cormac James’s whipsmart, lyrical novel Trondheim. In the winter, Trondheim ought to be magical, but to Lil and Alba, who are in the grip of a family emergency, it reads as surreal. They’ve received the worst of bad news: their healthy twenty-year-old son, Pierre, is in a coma. He might come out of it; he might not. … scalpel-sharp lyricism pares back their emotional and psychological states. Meticulous details expose their private anxieties and maternal devastation too. Their methods of coping diverge: Lil is pragmatic and tough, worrying about astronomical medical bills; Alba leans on rosary beads and plastic optimism. The book is compelling throughout. The psychological toll that Pierre’s state takes on Lil and Alba heightens through accounts of their day-to-day bedside vigil and each failed attempt of the procedure to wake him. Lil seeks solace in an ex-lover; Alba keeps mum about the betrayal. They drift apart even as they stand in solidarity for their son. Trondheim is an exquisite novel that explores maternal love, the price of hope, and how bodies endure.” 
— Foreword Reviews

“Through the detailed developments and meaningful digressions of the plot, the characters’ arrangement in—which is also arranging of—one another’s lives, and the clashing and reflecting perspectives that result, Trondheim itself holds together a small world sometimes desperately clinging to its threads of connection, sometimes appearing equally determined to tear itself to pieces. In doing so it offers a poignant and prescient reminder that it is also a role of art to contain such apparent polarities as love and thought, self and other, within a world “outside” such dreams, a world that needs such connections even more than it shuns them.” 
— Michael Collins, North of Oxford literary journal

“A luminous tale of forgiveness, love and hope that views a complicated relationship in the wake of tragedy.” 
— Library Journal

“Can a story about two middle-aged women who spend a week waiting around an ICU for their son to awaken from a coma be engaging, even compelling? Yes — at least if it’s Trondheim, the third novel by Cormac James … The story expands and deepens into a delicate spiral of rising and falling tension as the mothers wait, hope, suffer, falter, cope, and then repeat the pattern. The setting and circumstances may seem ordinary, but there’s much more going on here than a mundane — if dreadfully awful — medical emergency. … Will Pierre, in fact, emerge from his coma? And will Lil and Alba’s marriage survive whatever comes? Trondheim allows readers to make the prognosis. Whatever it might be, James’ elegant novel will leave them shattered and uplifted.” 
— Washington Independent Review of Books

The Surfacing

‘James uses the sublime appeal of the Arctic and the extreme situation of his characters as the stage for an essentially domestic psychological novel. The Surfacing is about how people live together and how we rise to the occasion of pregnancy and birth… This is a book for grownups, one that finds its best hope not in romance or friendship or the drama of seeking and finding, because none of those things happen, but in the capacity of human beings to endure… It is an austere pleasure to read.’ 
— The Guardian

‘Gratifyingly defies expectations.’
— New York Times Book Review

“There’s one hell of a woman on this harrowing Arctic adventure. You’ll want to invite her to your next gathering… you’ll be calling each other halfway through the month, just to chat about the ending.”
— Oprah.com Book Club selection

“The great topic of Cormac James’ THE SURFACING is the reach of human possibility. The prose is calm, vivid, hypnotic and acutely piercing. James is attuned to the psychological moment: this is a book about fatherhood and all its attendant terrors.  It’s a remarkable achievement…. James recognises the surfacing of love in the face of solitude. A stylish novel, full of music and quiet control. This is a writer that I’d like to see hurry – I’m looking forward already to the next book.”
— Colum McCann

“Irish author James’ hypnotic North American debut that’s less a high-stakes adventure than a slow-burning psychological study…James expertly captures both the terror and the overwhelming boredom of sea life, of being stuck in the ice, of having nothing to do but the monotonous and sometimes impossible task of staying alive. Cold and unmoving at the start, James’ character – Morgan and Kitty, the ship’s doctor, the cook, the elderly captain, and all the rest – slowly become fully, tragically human. …Meditative and spare, this is not a fast read but one worth the effort: underneath all the ice, there is real emotional depth.”
— Kirkus

“There is a synergy between words and action, tone and diction. In THE SURFACING … the reader, through language, is placed on the painstaking voyage in a vicarious way … There is much to admire in the beauty and simplicity of James’ diction. The tone of the novel complements the subject and keeps you reading enough to wonder what transformation could take place … For those who … admire well-written, deep, poetic sentences, then James’ fiction can satisfy … The novel simmers with a quiet beauty and solemnity.”
— Atticus Review

“Cormac James’s writing is very assured, with a harsh poetic edge. His evocations of barren landscape, sea weather, pack ice and frozen skies are powerful and compelling.”
— Rose Tremain

“James draws on the real-life search for John Franklin’s lost Arctic exhibition to explore the perils of life at sea, the rugged beauty of the Northwest Passage, and the transformative power of fatherhood… James’s sharp prose and attention to detail . . . leaves a lasting impression of this momentous journey.”
— Publisher’s Weekly

“‘The cool precision of James’s writing draws you on as surely as if you’re there… Plenty of bitchy, scrappy dialogue adds a blackly comic note, but James’s overarching storyline is measured, stately, assured… great start to the new reading season.’
— Arminta Wallace, The Irish Times

“James’s depictions of the Arctic are beautifully brutal, and his alignment of maternity with the enthralling yet treacherous landscape emphasises Morgan’s fear of both. […] James’s poetic, stripped-back prose works best when he allows the reader a glimpse of Morgan’s fiercely guarded heart. …THE SURFACING is a moving reminder that some of the biggest journeys in life don’t involve going anywhere at all.”
— Financial Times

“It’s been 14 years since Cormac James’s debut novel, TRACK AND FIELD, and, while it’s not unheard of for a writer to work on a second book over an extended period, expectations can diminish if too much time goes by. Such is the excellence, however, of THE SURFACING, a highly original and poetic story of isolation and responsibility upon the sea, that it quickly becomes clear that the Cork-born writer has put his time to good use. […] For Victorian England, [the lost Franklin Expedition] was a much-discussed mystery and became the source material for a play, THE FROZEN DEEP, co-written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. James, therefore, finds himself in illustrious company and it is no small compliment to say that he proves worthy of the challenge. …The strength of ship-based narratives, while rarely employed in contemporary fiction, is their ability to construct a fully populated microcosm of the world, one where the only escape is death. Writers as diverse as Homer, Conrad, Melville and William Golding have led the way and James picks up the baton – or oar – wielding it with great skill. … His confidence in recreating 19th century dialogue, along with his depictions of shipboard life (erudite while never appearing over-researched) is outstanding. And in a genre whose characteristics can too easily veer towards cliché, the writing sparkles with inventiveness. […] The real strength of the novel, however, lies in the powerful descriptions of nature at its wildest, vivid images of sea and sky, and the carefully constructed dialogue of the men. … THE SURFACING is so compelling that the 14-year wait can be forgiven. Though when a writer can produce something this powerful, I hope it’s not too demanding to say it would be nice not to have to wait so long next time.’
— John Boyne, The Irish Times

“A stunning historical novel … James delves deeply into Morgan’s psyche … in the most exquisite prose … James’s novel is a chiseled, cool work of poetic brilliance … A mesmerizing novel.”
— Tom Lavoie, Shelf Awareness

“James excels in his depiction of the hostile environment that eventually becomes the Impetus’s white prison. … An engrossing, well-researched read. However, it is James’ willingness to break free from the limitations of the traditional Arctic tale that takes the novel beyond the genre and widens its appeal. It allows the novel to venture far beyond the expedition narrative and delve into issues of fatherhood and responsibility, bringing all the complexities of the crew’s life back home under the blinding glare and unforgiving scrutiny of the Arctic sun. Beneath the surface of this expedition story, as with the stark icescape of the Arctic, it is in fact teeming with life.’
— Irish Independent

“It’s a fabulously detailed tale, both historically and its depiction of the savagely harsh landscape … it’s an epic tale of a quite magnificent futility, so much so that when Morgan and company embark on their final throw of the dice to Melville Island across ‘one white tract … blind ream, to every point,’ you half-expect a great white whale to hove into sight on the horizon.”
— Declan Burke, Irish Examiner

“‘There is nothing of the soap opera here. It is a nuanced meditation on fatherhood and, along the way, there are some terrific portrayals of life aboard ship in the mid-19th century. … This is a historical novel where the subject matter is almost incidental – though James has clearly done his research. The joy is in the prose, lyrical but not overblown, and the winningly straightforward plot. There’s also every chance that you’ll be tempted to turn up the thermostat while reading. James does a splendid job of portraying the icy landscapes, all the way up to the 76th Parallel.’
— Geographical Magazine

“I read THE SURFACING in Gjoa Haven, where Franklin Expedition spirits seem to cry out on the winter winds, and Cormac James’ writing spoke through the midday twilight with the chill of a voice from the distant past. Like the High Arctic world that he masterfully conjures, his storytelling is beautifully stark and captivating. THE SURFACING lures with the tundra’s promise: new life can come from death.”
— Paul Watson, Toronto Star Arctic correspondent, author of WHERE WAR LIVES