Shutter Island

infobox Book |
name = Shutter Island
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Book cover
author = Dennis Lehane
illustrator =
cover_artist = no 1
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre =
publisher = HarperCollins
pub_date = April 15 2003
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Mass Market Paperback)
pages = 380
isbn = ISBN 0688163173
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Shutter Island is a 2003 novel written by Dennis Lehane. A film adaptation of the novel, re-titled "Ashecliffe" and directed by Martin Scorsese, is forthcoming in 2009.

Premise

The story takes place in 1954 on Shutter Island, home to a psychiatric hospital called Ashecliffe. U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando, who had committed multiple murders. The marshals search the island for the patient as a hurricane bears down on them, and they find that the hospital has practiced sinister measures during its existence. [cite web | url=http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/books/shutterisland/ | title=Shutter Island | publisher=DennisLehane.com | accessdate=2008-01-08 ]

Background

With "Shutter Island", author Dennis Lehane sought to write a novel that would be a homage to Gothic settings, B movies, and pulp. Lehane described the novel as a hybrid of the works of the Brontë sisters and the 1956 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". The author wanted to write the main characters in a position where they would lack twentieth-century conventions such as radio communications. He also structured the book to be more taut than his previous book, "Mystic River". [cite news | author=Dave Weich | url=http://www.powells.com/authors/lehane.html | title= Dennis Lehane Meets the Bronte Sisters | publisher=Powell's Books | date= | accessdate=2008-01-08 ]

Film adaptation

The novel is being adapted into a film by director Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Williams, and Mark Ruffalo. The title, "Ashecliffe", refers to the hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island.

References