Overview
"The Narrows takes place in Detroit, where Henry Ford's factories have been retooled for America's grand war effort. But there are also more clandestine operations under way - including a top-secret effort to produce golems - powerful beings fashioned from the earth - to destroy Nazis. Here lurk strange spies in unlikely places - and a not-so-extraordinary man who is inadvertently poised at the bizarre, urgent center of it all." "Spared fighting in Europe because of a bum hand, Jared wishes he could join the cause, instead of mindlessly sifting clay to be made into golems. But there is something that preys on his dreams: the devilish dwarf known as the Nain Rouge. In his youth, Jared once actually saw the Dwarf - a chilling creature that shows itself to individuals just before their demise. Now the Nain Rouge appears to be coming back for Jared himself." Many have a profound interest in Jared's childhood run-in with the Dwarf - including a German spy, Jared's hateful foreman at the golem factory, and a shape-shifting Indian shaman. But what could a simple man who earns a meager living possibly have to do with espionage and dark deeds? While Jared toils invisibly in the bowels of Ford's plant, the answer is about to reveal itself in a cataclysm of mythic and sinister proportions.Synopsis
"The Narrows takes place in Detroit, where Henry Ford's factories have been retooled for America's grand war effort. But there are also more clandestine operations under way - including a top-secret effort to produce golems - powerful beings fashioned from the earth - to destroy Nazis. Here lurk strange spies in unlikely places - and a not-so-extraordinary man who is inadvertently poised at the bizarre, urgent center of it all." "Spared fighting in Europe because of a bum hand, Jared wishes he could join the cause, instead of mindlessly sifting clay to be made into golems. But there is something that preys on his dreams: the devilish dwarf known as the Nain Rouge. In his youth, Jared once actually saw the Dwarf - a chilling creature that shows itself to individuals just before their demise. Now the Nain Rouge appears to be coming back for Jared himself." Many have a profound interest in Jared's childhood run-in with the Dwarf - including a German spy, Jared's hateful foreman at the golem factory, and a shape-shifting Indian shaman. But what could a simple man who earns a meager living possibly have to do with espionage and dark deeds? While Jared toils invisibly in the bowels of Ford's plant, the answer is about to reveal itself in a cataclysm of mythic and sinister proportions.
Publishers Weekly
Mixing the fantastic with the historical, Irvine (A Scattering of Jade) shows that heroism is as likely in the factory as on the battlefield in this novel set in WWII-era Detroit. Jared Cleaves, unable to serve in the armed forces due to a childhood hand injury, becomes entangled with factory politics and military espionage. Selected by the Office of Esoteric Investigation to work on the Ford golem production line (the "Frankenline"), Jared remains unsatisfied with his contribution to the war. Looking to do more, he falls into a complicated series of plots to unearth a supernatural power trapped below Detroit. Drawing his supernatural elements from folklore, Irvine convincingly imagines a world in which sabotage is as likely to be caused by imps as by German agents-and makes the 1943 Detroit race riot a scarier monster than any of the fantasy creatures stalking the city's streets. Agent, Eben Weiss at Ralph Vicinanza. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.