The Other (New York Review Books Classics)

NYRB Classics presents the landmark psychological horror novel about 13-year-old twins living in a bucolic New England town—one good and the other very, very evil. “A whirlpool of Oh-My-God horror.” —Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby Holland and Niles Perry are identical 13-year-old twins. They are close, close enough, almost, to read each other’s thoughts, but they couldn’t be more different. Holland is bold and mischievous, a bad influence, while Niles is kind and eager to please, the sort of boy who makes parents proud. The Perrys live in the bucolic New England town their family settled centuries ago, and as it happens, the extended clan has gathered at its ancestral farm this summer to mourn the death of the twins’ father in a most unfortunate accident. Mrs. Perry still hasn’t recovered from the shock of her husband’s gruesome end and stays sequestered in her room, leaving her sons to roam free. As the summer goes on, though, and Holland’s pranks become increasingly sinister, Niles finds he can no longer make excuses for his brother’s actions. Thomas Tryon’s best-selling novel about a homegrown monster is an eerie examination of the darkness that dwells within everyone. It is a landmark of psychological horror that is a worthy descendent of the books of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shirley Jackson, and Patricia Highsmith.“. . . will doubtless become one of the classics of horror tales, comparable to The Turn of the Screw.” —Dorothy B. Hughes, Los Angeles Times

or any

“It is perhaps unfair and a little inaccurate to typecast The Other as a horror story. It is so ingenious and well-written that it transcends that

Los Angeles Times

“A lyrical, impressive horror story that is a cross between The Bad Seed and John Cheever’s The Wapshot Chronicles.”

Dorothy B. Hughes, Los Angeles Times

“This first novel from Thomas Tryon is a distinguished one, it may well leave you blenched with horror, but it is beautifully, even poetically, wrought, and within its boundaries there would seem an actual divination into the spirit of murderess insanity….In due time The Other will doubtless become one of the classics of horror tales, comparable to The Turn of the Screw.”

Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange

“Like most professional writers, I resent Tom Tryon’s The Other, since Tryon should get on with the job of being a good actor and not write good books as well. Enough is enough already. The Other is a highly readable chiller.”

Advocate (Baton Rouge)

“If you're looking for a good scary book to enjoy this Halloween, here is a suggestion: The Other by Thomas Tryon. The 1971 horror classic is a tale of a seemingly bucolic farmhouse in a small Connecticut town in the 1930s. There are no vampires in the story, no ghosts, no swamp monsters or ghouls or zombies or witches. There are two little boys, twins Niles and Holland, the picture of innocence. Or so it seems. The story is told in the voice of one of the boys, now older and a resident of a sanitarium. Insanity, it seems, is a family inheritance, and insanity is at the core of the chilling story that slowly unfolds and culminates in some horrifying deaths.”

Kirkus

“Truly extraordinary! One of those books over which everybody will take leave their senses, all seven of them…”

Minneapolis Tribune

“A smashing suspense-horror novel.”

Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby

“A humdinger…A whirlpool of Oh-My-God horror. Please congratulate Mr. Tryon for me. What a marvelous job he’s done.”

Saturday Review

“Tryon succeeds in creating a story that cast a subtly savage spell.”

Chicago Sun-Times

“The Other is an all-out war on reality.”

Hartford Courant

“The most memorable chiller-thriller to come along since Rosemary’s Baby….A tale of evil obsession with surprises and shockers.”

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

“Thomas Tryon has unfolded a horror story of supreme proportions.”

Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A psychological thriller that you read a second time to see how the author did it.”

Rocky Mountain News

“Thomas Tryon’s The Other will scare the hell right out of you….You’re almost afraid to turn the next page.”

About the Author

Thomas Tryon was a noted actor before turning to novels. His first novel, The Other, was successfully filmed in 1972. Other novels include Harvest Home, Crowned Heads, and The Night of the Moonbow. He died in 1991. The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as "Britain's most respected living horror writer". He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association.

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