Between night and dark

Between Night and Dark (English title "Full Dark, No Stars", literally: Absolute darkness, no stars ) is the third collection of short stories by the US author Stephen King after spring, summer, autumn and death and Nachts / Langoliers . It was published as an original audio book on October 29, 2010; the book editions followed on November 9th (USA) or, depending on the publisher, between November 8th and 15th (Germany).

content

The four short stories (one of them is strictly speaking a short story ) are loosely connected by the motif of revenge and are arranged symmetrically: short stories 1 and 3 are written from a man's point of view and deal with supernatural topics; Novellas 2 and 4 have women as central characters and do not contain any supernatural elements. The novellas are:

• 1922 : Looking back in 1930, a farmer confesses to the murder of his wife eight years earlier. Together with his 14-year-old son, he killed his wife and hid her body in a well. But that is just the beginning of the nightmare for both of them.
• Big Driver (lit .: Great driver ): In the style of Death Wish or The Brave (movies, is also alluded to in the story) is planning a raped writer revenge on their tormentors.
• Fair Extension (orig .: Fair Extension ): In this short story, a banker suffering from cancer enters into a deal with the devil to extend his life. But it pays a heavy price. Supposedly.
• A good marriage (orig .: A Good Marriage ): Darcy Anderson stumbles after nearly thirty years of marriage literally the dark secret of her husband when she gets stuck under the workbench in the garage of a box and into casts a curious glance, the whole of their Turns life upside down.

useful information

• After the overwhelming success with Kings Under the Dome (German: Die Arena ), the English publisher Hodder & Stoughton wanted to follow suit with this collection, which is intended to represent a deliberate contrast to the mammoth novel.
• The collection was also published as an audio book before the hardcover edition. This is a significantly shortened version, even if the cover reads "unabridged" ("unabridged"). Craig Wasson (already a reader of King's novella Blockade Billy ) and Jessica Hecht were engaged. There will also be a deluxe edition of the audio books.
• King was inspired to the story A Good Marriage by the Dennis Rader case .
• A Good Marriage and Big Driver were filmed in 2014, Big Driver was produced directly for television.
• 1922 was filmed in 2017 .

Advertising campaign

• In October, a website including an English trailer was created for the work.
• In October, a short film campaign started to stir the advertising drum . The publishing house Hodder and Stoughton commissioned four directors known for their short films to shoot trailers for the four novels. These will be published gradually. In the credits it is explicitly pointed out that the trailers try to capture the atmosphere of the novels rather than sticking to characters or locations that appear there. They all end with the words: "We don't fully know anyone. Least of all ourselves." ("We never really know anyone. Least of all ourselves.")

connections

There are numerous links to King's other works; here are some examples:

• 1922 is set in Hemingford Home, home of Abagail Freemantle from The Stand .
• The "King Cities" Derry and Castle Rock play a role; In connection with Derry, people and events from the novel ES are repeatedly discussed.
• King also sprinkles tongue-in- cheek allusions to his Dark Tower cycle .

expenditure

• Stephen King: Between Night and Dark , Heyne, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-26699-5 .
• Stephen King: Between night and dark , Weltbild, Augsburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86365-043-8 .
• Stephen King: Between Night and Dark , Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-453-43634-3 . (complete, German paperback edition)

Web links

• Detailed information on the contents of all four novels can be found in the KingWiki .
  • Summary of 1922
  • Summary of Big Driver
  • Summary of fair renewal
  • Summary of a good marriage

literature

• Angelika Mayr: Horror on a silver platter. Stephen King examines the role of women in his collection of novels to be published today. In: Münchner Merkur , November 15, 2010, p. 18.
• Sven-Eric Wehmeyer: Between night and dark , in: The Science Fiction Year 2011 , edited by Sascha Mamczak , Wolfgang Jeschke and Sebastian Pirling, Heyne, Munich 2011, pp. 1050-1052. ISBN 978-3-453-53379-0

supporting documents

1. ↑ Website on Full Dark, No Stars ( Memento from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ To the trailer from 1922 .