Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
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Find The God of the Woods Liz Moore in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The God of the Woods Liz Moore in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
Suspenseful fiction and creative nonfiction exploring complex family dynamics, addiction, and systemic social issues form the core of modern literary mystery and drama. American author Liz Moore achieved widespread acclaim with her 2020 thriller Long Bright River, which examines trauma and the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, as well as her acclaimed fifth novel, The God of the Woods.
Born on May 25, 1983, Liz Moore initially pursued a career as a musician in New York City. Her early music background directly inspired her debut novel, The Words of Every Song (2007), which follows characters linked to a fictional New York record label. Following her debut, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Hunter College and completed a residency at the University of Pennsylvania's ArtsEdge program in 2009. Over her academic and writing career, Moore has received significant honors, including the 2015 Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome. She serves as a Professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she directs the MFA program in Creative Writing and works as a screenwriter and producer, adapting Long Bright River into a miniseries for Peacock.
Writing across both fiction and creative nonfiction, Moore grounds her narratives in deep observational research and personal engagement with community spaces. For Long Bright River, she spent extended time conducting interviews in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood and leading free writing workshops at the St. Francis Inn shelter. Her narratives balance intricate mystery and suspense structures with empathetic character studies that address addiction, grief, memory, and institutional failures, grounding genre conventions in realistic social contexts.
1 books in catalog
Suspenseful fiction and creative nonfiction exploring complex family dynamics, addiction, and systemic social issues form the core of modern literary mystery and drama. American author Liz Moore achieved widespread acclaim with her 2020 thriller Long Bright River, which examines trauma and the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, as well as her acclaimed fifth novel, The God of the Woods.
Born on May 25, 1983, Liz Moore initially pursued a career as a musician in New York City. Her early music background directly inspired her debut novel, The Words of Every Song (2007), which follows characters linked to a fictional New York record label. Following her debut, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Hunter College and completed a residency at the University of Pennsylvania's ArtsEdge program in 2009. Over her academic and writing career, Moore has received significant honors, including the 2015 Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome. She serves as a Professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she directs the MFA program in Creative Writing and works as a screenwriter and producer, adapting Long Bright River into a miniseries for Peacock.
Writing across both fiction and creative nonfiction, Moore grounds her narratives in deep observational research and personal engagement with community spaces. For Long Bright River, she spent extended time conducting interviews in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood and leading free writing workshops at the St. Francis Inn shelter. Her narratives balance intricate mystery and suspense structures with empathetic character studies that address addiction, grief, memory, and institutional failures, grounding genre conventions in realistic social contexts.
