"Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King is a collection of interconnected stories that span from 1960 to 1999, revolving around characters affected by the Vietnam War. The book combines elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and real-life situations, focusing on themes of childhood innocence, loss, and the impact of historical events on individuals' lives. Through a series of novellas and short stories, King weaves a narrative that explores human emotions, societal prejudices, and the passage of time, with subtle ties to his Dark Tower series.
The book delves into the lives of characters like Bobby Garfield and Ted Brautigan, showcasing their growth and scars from childhood into adulthood. King's writing style blends descriptive storytelling with emotional depth, creating a poignant and engaging narrative that mixes elements of mystery, nostalgia, and social commentary. The interconnected stories offer a glimpse into the complexities of human experience, set against the backdrop of a tumultuous era in American history.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book features themes of war and trauma, especially related to Vietnam, which may be triggering for some readers.
Has Romance?
There is a medium level of romance present, particularly between characters as they grow and change over time.
From The Publisher:
The classic collection of five deeply resonant and disturbing interconnected stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.
Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these five interconnected, sequential tales-each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics and culture.
In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.
In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.
In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow-and as haunted-as their own lives.
And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him.
Full of danger and suspense, full of heart, this spellbinding fiction will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely forget. Nearly twenty years after its first publication, Hearts in Atlantis is powerful and astonishingly current.
"You will see Stephen King in a new light. Read this moving, heartfelt tragedy and weep-weep for our lost conscience." -BookPage
Ratings (49)
Incredible (10) | |
Loved It (10) | |
Liked It (13) | |
It Was OK (13) | |
Did Not Like (3) |
Reader Stats (90):
Read It (50) | |
Want To Read (24) | |
Did Not Finish (1) | |
Not Interested (15) |
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Hearts in Atlantis?
About the Author:
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, and Doctor Sleep are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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