HYDE
A New York Times Editors’ Choice • One of the Washington Post's 5 Best Thrillers of the Year
140 years have passed since Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his immortal novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the tale has never been more apt and alive. Usually referenced as a morality story of good versus evil, it is more a warning against the hubris of science, the danger of emotional repression, and the hypocrisy of the do-gooding upper class. In this retelling of Stevenson’s fable, Mr. Hyde is not a villain so much as the incognito alter ego Dr. Jekyll dons to experience life to its fullest.
Haunted by an abusive childhood, however, restrained by Victorian mores, and surrounded by ordinary evil in the alleys of Soho, Jekyll’s pleasure-seeking takes increasingly dark and twisted turns. And at the heart of the labyrinth of his own psyche he will find the monster is always himself.
Praise for HYDE:
"The novel is a pleasure…a worthy companion to its predecessor. It’s rich in gloomy, moody atmosphere (Levine’s London has a brutal steampunk quality), and its narrator’s plight is genuinely poignant." --New York Times
“A gloriously disturbing portrait of man’s animal nature ascendant, Hyde brings into the light the various horrors still hidden in the dark heart of Stevenson’s classic tale of monstrosity and addiction.” Patrick McGrath, author of Asylum
“Daniel Levine locates the strange beneath the familiar in this intricately imagined, meticulously executed debut. You may think you know Dr. Jekyll, but this Hyde is a different beast altogether.” Jon Clinch, author of Finn
Reviews:
Hyde is "the unconscious mind personified, submerged, ignored and desperate to be heard.” --New York Times
“Cleverly imagined and sophisticated in execution”--Kirkus Review
“Spellbinding” --Washington Post
“A brand new spin on the Gothic tale of dueling conscience and chemical transformation” --LA Review of Books
“Expertly invoked…effortlessly readable” --Open Letters Monthly