“Thomas E. Kennedy is an astonishment, and In the Company of Angels is
as elegant as it is beautiful, as important as it is profound. A marvel of a read.”
—Junot Dìaz, Pulitzer Prize Winner for fiction, 2008
“It probably doesn’t reflect glowingly on American expat Kennedy’s native country
that this watershed novel is the first to be published in the U.S. after a decade
of acclaim abroad. Why it’s taken so long is anyone’s guess.... Kennedy’s respect
for his characters and startlingly tender regard for basic humanity color what is
in effect a high-concept love story resonant with, as Nardo says, “The produce ...
of our lives.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Investigating the effects of brutality on the human soul, Kennedy does not allow
himself to become overwhelmed by the subject’s gravity. He does not preach
or condemn; instead, he offers two exquisitely crafted characters a chance to explore
the legacy of inhumanity and to enact a drama of resilience—redemption, even....
An artfully written story with a conscience.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“In this work, Chilean exile Bernardo Greene believes that after months of torture
at the hands of the Pinochet regime, he was visited by angels who promised that
he would survive to experience once again the sun on his face, beauty, and love.
Greene is recovering and in therapy in Copenhagen when he meets Michela Ibsen, a
Dane who is struggling to heal from domestic abuse and her daughter's suicide.
VERDICT: Kennedy writes with unusual insight and compassion, depicting the best
and the worst of the human experience. His work may be new to U.S. readers, but
it merits greater attention, and we should look forward to seeing the other three
books in his quartet published here. A great choice for readers of literary fiction.”
—Library Journal
”What a gorgeous novel this is! With generous and elegant prose, Kennedy takes us
from the darkest, most violent regions of our collective behavior to our most exalted:
our enduring hope for something higher, our need to forgive and be forgiven, our
human hunger to love and be loved. This is a deeply stirring novel suffused with
intelligence, grace, and that rarest of qualities — written or otherwise —
wisdom.”
—Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
“The combination of subtle, beautiful prose and searingly painful realities make
In the Company of Angels a story that lingers in the intellect as pervasively
as in the heart. An astonishing, wise novel of our times.”
—Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
“A terrific book. Mr Kennedy writes beautifully and thoughtfully about the horrors
that we humans inflict upon our bodies, and more dangerously upon our vulnerable
minds. We all come safely through, protagonists and readers.”
—Jennifer Johnston, author of The Illusionist
“...wise and astonishingly beautiful.... Despite its unflinching look at humanity’s
greatest horrors, this masterful novel eventually passes beyond terror, and the
reader is left contemplating the healing powers of kind daughters, ministering angels
and the sad beauty of Danish summer.”
—Kansas City Star
“...powerful sprinkles of flashback and review which evoke the unreal nightmare
of torture.... A Consummate exploration of the themes of violence, religion in modern
Europe, the rise of antisocial tendencies in the great social democracies, and love ...
[this novel] lacks nothing.... Kennedy is a master craftsman....”
—Books Ireland
“Both a riveting examination of the violence we've come to take for granted,
and an unsentimental, morally complex love story. Thomas Kennedy tackles the darkest
of subjects, but with searing precision and grace, and with such feeling for ordinary
humanity, that this book is full of light.”
—Rene Steinke, author of Holy Skirts
“In a masterfully constructed narrative, Kennedy leads the reader through the lives
of [the characters] and intertwines them into an utterly compelling tale.... He reveals
the unspoken words and desires, the fierce determination of the human heart, and
the possibility of healing.”
—BookView Ireland
“Destinies meet at one another’s crossroads in the third part of this American,
Danish-resident author’s moody noir quartet about Copenhagen.... Kennedy is well
on his way to placing the Danish capital city on the international literary map...”
—Five-star review in Euroman
“... an elegy to the human heart ... a glorious novel by a modern master.”
—Irish Edition
“[Kennedy] has populated his fictional Copenhagen with American daydreamers, Russian
prostitutes, and Arabian Muslims.... [In the Company of Angels] unfolds as
a love triangle between Bernardo Greene, a Chilean torture victim being treated
in Copenhagen, Michela Ibsen who has come out of a violent marriage, and her new
lover Voss Andersen who is caught in his own sexual obsession. On Copenhagen’s
streets ... Bernardo and Michela bump into one another and attempt to find out
if they dare fall in love.”
—Information (Copenhagen)
“Tragic, wise, comic, profound, [In the Company of Angels] is an epic of
the human heart struggling for meaning and redemption.”
—Rain Taxi
”A terrible, wonderful, horrible, truthful, heartbreaking and heart-mending book.
The word masterpiece should never be used lightly, but this one is exactly that,
a masterpiece written by a master. How can anyone know so much about the human heart?”
—Duff Brenna, author of Too Cool, The Book of Mamie, and The Altar of
the Body
”It has been said that no language exists to describe the experience of that greatest
of all traumas — torture — the attempt to erase a human being’s personality
by the willful infliction of intense physical and psychological pain. But Thomas E. Kennedy’s
novel In the Company of Angels, with the great talent of an artist, has
created a language which brilliantly describes not only the intense loneliness and
distress of those who have survived torture, but also the struggle, hope and possibility
of their healing. This novel is highly recommended for anyone seeking insight into
this horror and this hope.”
—Dr. Inge Genefke, Ambassador, International Research Council for Torture Victims