{"product_id":"the-eighth-day-9780060088910","title":"The Eighth Day","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"[Wilder's] finest and most beautiful novel. . . . Spanning two continents and several generations, it begins as a murder mystery and goes on to tell a story, at once dramatic and philosophical, about the range of human courage, aspirations, steadfastness, weakness, defeat and victory.\" -- \u003cem\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis beautiful edition of Thornton Wilder's renowned National Book Award-winning novel features a foreword by John Updike and an afterword by Tappan Wilder, who draws on unique sources as Wilder's unpublished letters, handwritten annotations, and other illuminating documentary material.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt once a murder mystery and a philosophical tale, \u003cem\u003eThe Eighth Day\u003c\/em\u003e is a \"suspenseful and deeply moving\" (\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e) work of classic stature that has been hailed as a great American epic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in a mining town in southern Illinois, the novels centers around two families blasted apart when the patriarch of one family, John Ashley, is accused of murdering his best friend. Ashley's miraculous jailbreak on the eve of his execution and his subsequent flight to South America trigger a powerful story tracing the fates of all those whose lives are forever changed by the tragedy: Ashley himself, his wife and children, and the wife and children of the victim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWilder, Thornton:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eThornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. His \u003cem\u003eBridge of San Luis Rey\u003c\/em\u003e, one of seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, as did two of his four full-length dramas, \u003cem\u003eOur Town\u003c\/em\u003e (1938) and \u003cem\u003eThe Skin of Our Teeth\u003c\/em\u003e (1943). Wilder's \u003cem\u003eThe Matchmaker\u003c\/em\u003e was adapted as the musical \u003cem\u003eHello, Dolly!\u003c\/em\u003e. He also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them teaching, acting, the opera, and films. (His screenplay for Hitchcock's \u003cem\u003eShadow of Doubt\u003c\/em\u003e [1943] remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day.) Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50502904348946,"sku":"9780060088910","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0b67801e-fa1a-41d1-b537-3f474b2fbf23.jpg?v=1730778747","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-eighth-day-9780060088910","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}