The Fifty Year Sword

by Mark Z. Danielewski

In this story set in East Texas, a local seamstress named Chintana finds herself responsible for five orphans who are not only captivated by a storyteller’s tale of vengeance but by the long black box he sets before them. As midnight approaches, the box is opened, a fateful dare is made, and the children as well as Chintana come face to face with the consequences of a malice retold and now foretold.

• ISBN10: 0307907724
• ISBN13: 9780307907721
• Publish Date: 16 October 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Pantheon
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780307907721

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

The Fifty Year Sword is a ghost story that is, thankfully, a much easier read than [b:Only Revolutions|40152|Only Revolutions|Mark Z. Danielewski|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1285310946s/40152.jpg|892647]. Like all of MZD's books, it's done very artfully and unusually, but it's also very, very readable. I loved the lyrical language and the way the story is told by five different narrators in a seamless way (the five narrators being the five orphans, surely? but that's never revealed). The main character is a seamstress and the art is all done in embroidery, and those two facts also tie into one of the themes of the stories. Like both [b:House of Leaves|24800|House of Leaves|Mark Z. Danielewski|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327889035s/24800.jpg|856555] and Only Revolutions, this book is An Experience and it is best read by setting aside a quiet evening to take it all in.