The Stars at Noon

Written by Denis Johnson

Narrated by Will Patton

A literary thriller and love story set during the Nicaraguan revolution, from the National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. • Now the basis for a major motion picture

Set in Nicaragua in 1984, The Stars at Noon is a story of passion, fear, and betrayal told in the voice of an American woman whose mission in Central America is as shadowy as her surroundings. Is she a reporter for an American magazine, as she sometimes claims, or a contact person for the anti-war group Eyes of Peace? And who is the rough English businessman she begins an affair with? The two foreigners become entangled in sinister plots and ever-widening webs of corruption, until a desperate attempt to escape the country brings their relationship to a crisis point.

With his customary narrative brilliance, award-winning writer Denis Johnson brings a hellish landscape of moral ambiguity vividly to life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593675151

Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson (1949-2017) nació en Munich, pero se crió en Tokio, Manila y Washington. Desde la publicación de sus primeras obras se convirtió en un autor de culto en Estados Unidos. Recibió la beca Lanna Fellowship y el Whiting Writer's Award, entre otros muchos galardones. En 2007 le fue concedido el National Book Award por su novela Árbol de Humo (Literatura Random House, 2008). También es autor de la novela negraQue nadie se mueva (Roja y Negra, 2012) y de las novelas Hijo de Jesús, Sueños de trenes,El nombre del mundo, Los monstruos que ríen y Fiskadoro, todas ellas publicadas en Literatura Random House.

Reviews for The Stars at Noon

[quixada_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was not one of Johnson's strongest novels. I believe it was his third. Published in 1986 it contains the voice of an American female trying to get out of Nicaragua during the revolution in 1984. The first part of the novel (the first 20 or 30 pages) contained some very moving, beautiful, interesting, and magical sentences. However theses types of sentences were less frequently found throughout the rest of the book.

I liked the ending - very fitting.

Example sentences found in the first part:

"You have the kind of good manners that eventually get you killed."
"I wanted to know the exact dimensions of Hell." (When asked why she was there.)
"'Are you for sale?' 'I am press.' 'We're all press.' 'Then we're all for sale.'"
"We can't remember our sins here. We don't know who we used to be."
"Making love with him was like passing through a patch of fog."
"I could walk through hours like doorways in the middle of the night."

Beautiful.

[gabebaker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Stars at Noon appears to be one of DJ's least read works, and that is a shame. DJ is a very masculine writer, so his use of a female voice takes some getting used to. But once I settled in, I found this tale of the political and moral confusion of a female American journalist and an English executive in Sandinista-era Nicaragua extremely compelling. There is a strong resemblance to Graham Greene's spy stories, but with a harsher edge.