The Between

by Tananarive Due

Book Overview

"An extraordinary work of humane imagination. . . . Call it magic realism with soul. The closest compatriot of The Between is Toni Morrison's Beloved. Not shabby."--LocusA man risks his soul and his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060927267
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

There's No Such Thing as Dreams

This is a great psychological thriller mixing traditional African and Caribbean spirituality with modern social problems. The main character Hilton thinks he's going insane with nightmares about death and threats to his family, but he is really tuning in subconsciously to the realm of "The Between"- between life and death. Tananarive Due incorporates fascinating concepts from Ghanaian and Haitian mythology to construct this haunting dimension, in which life and death converge to affect waking reality in disturbing ways. Meanwhile, the action of the story involves a white supremacist who is supposedly stalking Hilton's wife, a prominent black judge. But the racist villain might only be a tool for darker forces yearning for an underworld-style vengeance on Hilton, who has an unknown genetic affinity with such forces of life and death. I agree with a few other reviewers that these supernatural phenomena are a bit under-explained in the narrative, while the hereditary angle in which Hilton may have passed things on to his children is introduced but dropped inconclusively. However, the characters are uniformly well-drawn and empathetic, and overall this is a winning suspense novel with a very creative ethnic twist on the supernatural. [~doomsdayer520~]

What's real?

How many chances do we get at life? What happens when we are meant to die and, yet we live? In Tananarive Due's novel The Between, the answer may not be what you think. Hilton battled nightmares of his grandmother's death for years. After therapy, he was able to rest without the haunting images invading his slumber. Now, five years after he had his last night horror, the images return when his family is threatened by a racist who has set out to destroy them. Hilton's reality becomes a jumbled mess each time he wakes up. He finds he has done things he doesn't remember doing and has not done things he recalls. This thwart of his reality threatens to send him over the edge. I have heard so many things about Tananarive Due's novels, though I had only read her book The Black Rose. I had no idea how enthralling her fiction could be. The writing is that of the most divine quality. The story makes you look over your shoulder. The idea makes you stay up late trying to surmise the existence of Hilton. The characters jump off the page and haunt your dreams. I found myself, long after the last page had been turned, wondering what it was like to live in the Between. Reviewed by Candace K

Fantastic

It is usually pretty easy to differentiate an author's first work from their subsequent works. I read Tananarive Due's My Soul To Keep first and finished The Between months later ... They were equally superb. The Between is a suspenseful first novel which chronicles the confusing life (death?) of Hilton, a man who, at age 8, nearly drowned but was saved by his grandmother. As an adult he suffers from horrendous nightmares and soon becomes unable to distinguish them from his waking hours. Coupled with having to protect his family from a psychotic, racist, ex-convict who is after his prosecutor wife, Hilton and the reader are tossed into a world of dreams/reality, life/death, sanity/insanity ... death/life. This was a chilling and thrilling tale. I am usually not one who automatically sees movie potential in a book but I think this one would be a tortuous theme for the silver screen. I anxiously (and nervously) await another novel by Tananarive Due !

Chilling and thrilling tale

It is usually pretty easy to differentiate an author's first work from their subsequent works. I read Tananarive Due's My Soul To Keep first and finished The Between months later ... They were equally superb. The Between is a suspenseful first novel which chronicles the confusing life (death?) of Hilton, a man who, at age 8, nearly drowned but was saved by his grandmother. As an adult he suffers from horrendous nightmares and soon becomes unable to distinguish them from his waking hours. Coupled with having to protect his family from a psychotic, racist, ex-convict who is after his prosecutor wife, Hilton and the reader are tossed into a world of dreams/reality, life/death, sanity/insanity ... death/life. This was a chilling and thrilling tale. I am usually not one who automatically sees movie potential in a book but I think this one would be a tortuous theme for the silver screen.

True to life eerie tale

It is usually pretty easy to differentiate an author's first work from their subsequent works. I read Tananarive Due's My Soul To Keep first and finished The Between months later ... They were equally superb. The Between is a suspenseful first novel which chronicles the confusing life (death?) of Hilton, a man who, at age 8, nearly drowned but was saved by his grandmother. As an adult he suffers from horrendous nightmares and soon becomes unable to distinguish them from his waking hours. Coupled with having to protect his family from a psychotic, racist, ex-convict who is after his prosecutor wife, Hilton and the reader are tossed into a world of dreams/reality, life/death, sanity/insanity ... death/life. This was a chilling and thrilling tale. I am usually not one who automatically sees movie potential in a book but I think this one would be a tortuous theme for the silver screen. I anxiously (and nervously) await another novel by Tananarive Due !!