Post date: Nov 20, 2013 9:12:57 PM
EVO - The "Master of Horror" is out to frighten his German readers.
U.S. best-selling author Stephen King on Wednesday (November 20) introduced his latest novel "Doctor Sleep" in Hamburg after a reading in Munich on Tuesday (November 19). It is King's first ever visit to Germany.
"Doctor Sleep", a sequel of King's 1977 novel "The Shining" tells the story of Danny Torrance, son of Jack Torrance who in "The Shining" loses his mind during one winter, working as a maintenance man at the remote Overlook Hotel.Speaking at the presentation of "Doctor Sleep" in the northern German city, King said he was at first not convinced about writing a sequel.
"I did say that usually a sequel is the last resort of a failing creative impulse. And in most cases that's true and it's one of the reasons that I finally decided that I wouldn't like to write a sequel to 'The Shining'. Because frankly so many times a sequel comes along and critics will say: 'This doesn't hold a candle to the original, this is a pale imitation of the first one. And I kind of wanted to confront that and see if I can get past that and I had least one beacon of hope, because Mark Twain wrote a book called Tom Sawyer and the sequel to Tom Sawyer is Huckleberry Finn and it is considered to be one of the great works of American literature, in fact is it supposed the headwaters of modern American fiction, so I thought 'Well, if Mark Twain can do it, at least I can take a shot at it. So I did," he added.
In his new novel, Danny, who has been battling his traumatic past with alcohol and drugs that also help him dim his special ability, the "shining", moves to a small town after one particularly low point in his career as an alcoholic. He finds a new job and starts fighting his addiction. Just when he starts thinking his life might resemble normality for the first time, he meets Abra, a little girl whose gift of the "shining" is even stronger than his. Together, they have to fight a seemingly hopeless battle against evil forces who threaten to destroy not only Abra's life.
King, whose first claim to fame was his 1974 book "Carrie", is no stranger to addiction problems himself, he has battled alcohol, cocaine and drug addiction and, as a recovering alcoholic, still attends meetings of "Alcoholics Anonymous" on a regular basis.
King, who has to date sold more than 400 million books that have been translated into more than 40 languages is one of the world's most successful authors. He is mainly known for his horror novels such as "Carrie", "Christine", "Pet Cemetery", "It", "Misery" and "Cujo", many of which have also been adapted for cinema and television.
King is also the author of novellas such as "Stand by Me", "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile", all of which were turned into critically acclaimed movies. His most elaborate work to date is the "Dark Tower" series, an eight volume fantasy epos which he worked on for almost 30 years.
To date, King has published more than 40 novels, more than 100 short stories, many novellas and multiple screenplays. He has also written poems, essays and non-fiction.