Saint X
20 February 2020Synopsis
'Hypnotic, delivering acute social commentary on everything from class and race to familial bonds and community . . . I devoured Saint X in a day.' — New York Times, Oyinkan Braithwaite (author of My Sister, The Serial Killer)
Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister Alison vanishes from the luxury resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X on the last night of her family’s vacation. Several days later Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released.
Years later, riding in a New York City taxicab, Claire recognizes the name on the cabbie’s licence, Clive Richardson – her driver is one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister and the fateful encounter sets her on an obsessive pursuit of the truth. But as Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will uncover the truth, an unlikely intimacy develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by a tragedy.
Alexis Schaitkin's Saint X is a flawlessly drawn and deeply moving story that hurtles to a devastating end.
Details
20 February 2020
9781529014303Reviews
Saint X is hypnotic, delivering acute social commentary on everything from class and race to familial bonds and community . . . I devoured Saint X in a day.Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, New York Times
Richly atmospheric, by turns coolly satiric and warmly romantic . . . Saint X is irresistibly suspenseful and canny.Joyce Carol Oates
Here is a marvel of a book, a kaleidoscopic examination of race and privilege, family and self, told with the propulsive, kinetic focus of a crime thriller. Brilliant and unflinching, Saint X marks the debut of a stunningly gifted writer. I simply couldn’t stop reading.Chang-Rae Lee
Saint X is more than the story of a missing girl. It’s a story about why such stories fascinate us . . . [It] also unpacks timely social and cultural issues — about grief, truth, white privilege and our murder-as-entertainment culture.Washington Post
