The Trespasser

By Edra Ziesk

Set in the hills of Kentucky, Edra Ziesk s third novel deals with boundaries and ownership, visible and invisible, present and past. It is the gripping story of what happens to a small Appalachian... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870745514
• ISBN13: 9780870745515
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

So Many Ways to Trespass

Edra Ziesk's "The Trespasser" is a story about respecting boundaries and what happens when Sebastian Bryant, a New York photographer, inadvertently triggers a tragic chain-of-events in a remote Kentucky town by failing to understand just how serious one old man is about keeping strangers off his property. By the time he stumbles upon the striking little Appalachian mountain cabin, Bryant has already driven across much of America taking pictures for his next book. Now, though he is fighting excessive heat and failing light, Bryant offers fifty dollars to the young couple living there to stand on the cabin porch with their baby while he photographs the scene. As he prepares his cameras, Bryant is confronted by the property owner, Hesketh Day, a man suffering from dementia, and while the two men talk about what Bryant is doing on Day property, it becomes too dark to take any photos. Bryant underestimates the level of Hesketh Day's opposition to his presence and returns to the cabin the next morning where Day even more angrily disputes his right to be there. This time, though, Day is armed. Bryant, as it turns out, is not the only clumsy trespasser in the town and the remainder of "The Trespasser" explores how one relatively innocent act leads to a disturbing blurring of physical and emotional boundaries that makes the town's return to its old rhythms and routines near impossible. Sylvie Pomfret sees nothing wrong with moving into Hesketh Day's big house while Day is locked up. After all, the now empty house has an indoor toilet, a washer, and a telephone, three things missing from the little cabin that the Pomfrets rented from Day. Mattie Wheeler, Day's cousin, does not see it that way and her outrage at the audacity of Sylvie's move leads to a physical confrontation between the two and a formal complaint to the local sheriff. Other boundaries, some obvious and others less so, are crossed when one local attorney becomes so infatuated with Sylvie that he forgets she has a husband, when Sylvie and her baby appear unannounced at her sister's door with no place else to go, or when Sylvie's husband does the same to his sister and resentful brother-in-law in Ohio. Even Mattie Wheeler, always quick to accuse others of crossing lines, is not above using her status as a longtime area school teacher to squeeze special favors from the sheriff and a local attorney, both former students of hers. Sebastian Bryant came to eastern Kentucky looking for photographs and stumbled into a closed little community whose code of behavior he would never understand. What happened to him rippled through the town in ways that would change other lives forever, sometimes for the good, and sometimes not. Edra Ziesk, in "The Trespasser," has replicated a little piece of the hills of Kentucky and filled it with a cast of very real characters, with not a hero among them.

A wonderful novel

The Trespasser is a gem. It begins with a sudden act of violence: a big-city photographer shot in high on a Kentucky mountain for an unintended act of trespassing. The novel seems, at first, as though it will be about the photographer's relationship to the decaying town, but as quickly as the man dies, the story moves in a surprising direction--into the lives of the people surrounding the event. There's no "whodunit" here; this is a story about the events that follow a terrible crime. The murderer is put in jail, where the past and present overlap in time; the killer's cousin battles to defend his name and property; a young mother stretches to testify about the events she witnessed while her husband sets off for Ohio in search of work. The local attorney finds himself stalking the witness he is trying to help. Everyone trespasses, everyone oversteps their boundaries, no one is innocent. It is the absence of innocence that makes the novel so compelling, for there is no hero here, and no villains either, just people on the verge of desperation trying to survive. The ending is resolved with a near-Biblical catastrophe, an unexpected and harrowing event that opens the door for triumph and redemption. The prose is clean and spare, often gorgeous, and reminiscent of Kent Haruf's most recent novels, Plainsong and Eventide. The Trespasser is a swift read, but an impressive book.

An incisive tale of an insular society

"There was a sign nailed to the gate--'Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted'--but some long ago [he] had crossed out 'Prosecuted' and written 'Shot.'" When professional photographer Sebastian Bryant ventures into Eastern Kentucky, he discovers the dangers lurking in these isolated hills. Edra Ziesk (Acceptable Losses and A Cold Spring) has written an incisive tale of an insular society, where past grievances and long-standing feuds impinge destructively on the present, and grinding poverty leads to blighted hopes and blasted lives. In these Appalachian highlands, the humid, stifling heat of a Southern summer has got everyone a bit addled, producing a dog-in-the-manger churlishness. Forgotten are the words of the wise philosopher who counseled, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." I could not give this book five stars, for the ending is somewhat disappointing. After a tense buildup, the novel just suddenly stops. Could the author have gotten tired of her own story, or did she make some artistic decision of which I am not aware? Neverthelless, The Trespassers is beautifully written and is well worth your time. About the author: Edra Ziesk is the author of two previous novels, Acceptable Losses and A Cold Spring, as well as many short stories. She is the recipient of fellowships in fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.