The Wind Through the Keyhole

✍ Scribed by Stephen King

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 255
• Series: The Dark Tower, #4.5
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba

In The Wind Through the Keyhole, Stephen King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga that stands as his most beguiling achievement.

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two...and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.

In his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death, Roland is sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a “skin-man” preying upon the population around Debaria. Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, the brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast’s most recent slaughter. Only a teenager himself, Roland calms the boy and prepares him for the following day’s trials by reciting a story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that his mother often read to him at bedtime. “A person’s never too old for stories,” Roland says to Bill. “Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.” And indeed, the tale that Roland unfolds, the legend of Tim Stoutheart, is a timeless treasure for all ages, a story that lives for us.

King began the Dark Tower series in 1974; it gained momentum in the 1980s; and he brought it to a thrilling conclusion when the last three novels were published in 2003 and 2004. The Wind Through the Keyhole is sure to fascinate avid fans of the Dark Tower epic. But this novel also stands on its own for all readers, an enchanting and haunting journey to Roland’s world and testimony to the power of Stephen King’s storytelling magic.

**

Review

Classic King, fine characters, compellingly written in a gripping, well-honed plot Daily Express on THE DARK TOWER Superbly energetic, it's King at his best. Mail on Sunday on WIZARD AND GLASS

Review

'[A] phantasmagorical folk tale ... King's ability to entertain and unsettle cannot be denied. The skill with which he delivers a shock or sense of gothic terror is simply unmatched' -- Independent on Sunday 'Perfectly balanced: another excellent example of King's sheer skill as a storyteller.' -- Daily Express 'Like John Steinbeck, he's an unfussy writer whose voice is rooted equally in the rhythms of everyday speech and the mythic made manifest in everyday life. Indeed, reading King, you often sense the presence of the dustbowl America of The Grapes of Wrath ... a King novel has a sparse elegance that most novelists never achieve in a whole career. Put it down to the insistent, economical and wholly distinctive authorial voice.' -- SFX Magazine 'A frantic-paced puzzle-box adventure that encompasses gunslinger Roland Deschain's early years, werewolves and powerful storytelling.' -- Shortlist 'King is one of the great popular artists of our time.' -- Independent 'Classic King, fine characters, compellingly written in a gripping, well-honed plot' -- Daily Express on WOLVES OF THE CALLA 'Superbly energetic, it's King at his best.' -- Mail on Sunday on WIZARD AND GLASS