After years alone in a cell, an aging prisoner is released without explanation, expelled into a great city now utterly unfamiliar to him. Broken by years of brutality at the hands of the prison guards, he scrounges for scraps, sleeping wild, until a museum curator rescues him from an assault. The museum has just opened its most controversial exhibit: a perfect replica of the marshes, an expansive wilderness still wracked by conflict. There the man had spent years as a doctor among the hated and feared marshmen, who have been colonized but never conquered. Then Marshlands reveals one of its many surprises: It is written in reverse. The novel leaps backward once, twice, returning to the marshes and unravelling time to reveal the doctor's ambiguous relationship to the austerely beautiful land and its people. As the pieces of his past come together, a great crime and its consequences begin to take shape. The true nature of the crime and who committed it will be saved for the breath-taking ending - or, rather, for the beginning.

"A first novel of considerable maturity: powerful, original, cunningly constructed, and timely." - Julian Barnes

About the Author
Matthew Olshan is the author of several books for young readers, including Finn, The Flown Sky, and The Mighty Lalouche. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.


Book Information
ISBN 9780374535056
Author Matthew Olshan
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
Publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
Weight(grams) 182g
Dimensions(mm) 201mm * 136mm * 12mm