The Eighth Day (novel)

The Eighth Day is a 1967 novel by Thornton Wilder. Set in a mining town in southern Illinois, the plot revolved around John Barrington Ashley, who is accused of murdering his neighbor Breckenridge Lansing. The novel was written over the course of twenty (20) months while Wilder was living alone in Douglas, Arizona.^[1] The Eighth Day was the 1968 winner of the National Book Award.^[2]

Synopsis

During a weekend gathering of the Ashley and Lansing families, Breckenridge Lansing is shot while the men are practicing shooting. Townsfolk suspect that Eustacia Lansing and John Ashley were having an affair. Ashley is tried, and convicted to execution. Miraculously, days before the scheduled execution, he is rescued by mysterious masked men. He then escapes to Chile, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian named James Tolland and finds work in the copper mining industry.

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