Synopses & Reviews
A fabulous noir.” Daniel Woodrell
Thoughtful, complex and compassionate.” Dan Chaon Mark Wisniewski is a damn good writer.” Ben Fountain Winters Bone meets The Wire, Watch Me Go is an edgy, soulful meditation on the meaning of love, the injustices of hate, and the power of hope
Douglas Deesh” Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayaland the prime suspect in the murders of three white men. When Jan, a young jockey from the gritty underworld of the Finger Lakes racetrack breaks her silence about gambling and organized crime, Deesh learns how the story of her past might, against all odds, free him from a life behind bars. Interweaving Deeshs and Jans gripping narratives, Watch Me Go is a wonderfully insightful work that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive for justice. At once compulsively readable, thought-provoking, and complex, it is a suspenseful, compassionate meditation on the power of love and the injustices of hate.
Review
Praise for
Watch Me Go “The pure, muscular storytelling of Mark Wisniewskis
Watch Me Go made it irresistible.” —Salman Rushdie, #1
New York Times-bestselling author “Mark Wisniewski is a damn good writer.” —Ben Fountain,
New York Times-bestselling author of
Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk “With
Watch Me Go, Mark Wisniewski has constructed a fabulous noir that touches on the third-rail of American life and the inside rail at the track. His voice is down-to-earth and sharp, delivering swift, salty pages concerning murder and jails, justice and damaged souls.” —Daniel Woodrell, PEN award winner and Edgar nominated author of
Winters Bone “A smart, richly observed noir thriller, located somewhere on the border between Richard Price and Daniel Woodrell. Its full of double-crosses and secrets, yes, but Watch Me Go is also thoughtful, complex, and compassionate in its depiction of these visceral characters and their circumstances.” —Dan Chaon, National Book Award finalist and author of Await Your Reply “A gritty tale of mystery and desire, it breaks from the gate with power and grace and never falters. This book has legs.” —Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever “Watch Me Go is urgent, wrenching, and—as the two entwined narratives pick up speed and consequence—riveting. The momentum carries us through to revelations about family and redemption . . . A deft and sure novel.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of The Hundred-Year House and The Borrower
Review
Praise for Watch Me Go:
“Wisniewski artfully brings to life the hardscrabble and crooked lives surrounding the Finger Lakes horse racing track. He shows us how racial prejudice still runs rampant in American life and how justice is sometimes meted out in the most circumstantial of ways. But perhaps most important, he brings to light the countless ways that love—romantic and familial—is as complicated as it is essential…Wisniewski is a sure and smart writer, and his philosophy never gets in the way of his story, which is suspenseful and original and wholly unpredictable.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[C]hannels the best of [Wisniewskis] profluent short fiction… Watch Me Go feels particularly apt to our national present, when police procedure is under constant scrutiny…Wisniewskis prose burns forward, but he knows when to slow the pace.” —The Millions
“Outstanding…Wisniewski deftly alternates perspectives and narrative threads… just what fans of literate and nuanced daylight noir will relish.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"...wonderfully raw and gritty..." —Booklist
"Pure, muscular storytelling … irresistible." —Salman Rushdie, #1 New York Times-bestselling author “Mark Wisniewski is a damn good writer.” —Ben Fountain, New York Times-bestselling author of Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk
“With Watch Me Go, Mark Wisniewski has constructed a fabulous noir that touches on the third-rail of American life and the inside rail at the track. His voice is down-to-earth and sharp, delivering swift, salty pages concerning murder and jails, justice and damaged souls.” —Daniel Woodrell, PEN award winner and Edgar nominated author of Winters Bone “A smart, richly observed noir thriller, located somewhere on the border between Richard Price and Daniel Woodrell. Its full of double-crosses and secrets, yes, but Watch Me Go is also thoughtful, complex and compassionate in its depiction of these visceral characters and their circumstances.” —National Book Award Finalist Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply “A gritty tale of mystery and desire, it breaks from the gate with power and grace and never falters. This book has legs.” —Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever “Watch Me Go is urgent, wrenching, and—as the two entwined narratives pick up speed and consequence—riveting. The momentum carries us through to revelations about family and redemption . . . A deft and sure novel.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of The Hundred-Year House and The Borrower "A deeply-felt story of the way two people, a young Black man and a White woman, are damned equally by the choices they make as well as the circumstances forced upon them. The novel unfolds with the pace of a thriller, leading us through the world of gambling, horse-racing, and prisons both real and imagined, all told in voices that ring true from start to finish.” —Ru Freeman, author of A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane "Mark Wisniewski's gift for inhabiting his characters, body and soul, is more than impressive—it smacks of the dark arts, and Watch Me Go is scary good. Seductively plotted, crazily well-written, and wholly gripping, this book at once gallops headlong and stops you in your tracks with a truths-per-page quotient that is off the charts—laser-fine insights into how we love, leave, gamble, lose, redeem, and strive once more for love. Get a good grip on the reins, reader: Watch Me Go is one hell of a ride." —Tim Johnston, author of Descent and Irish Girl "Watch Me Go is a nuanced, suspenseful work of a prodigious and stunning imagination. Mark Wisniewski has created a literary novel of suspense that displays on every page the author's bracing intelligence and humanity." —Christine Sneed, author of Little Known Facts and Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry "Watch Me Gos timeless weaving of narratives about love, luck, and loss is wonderfully suspenseful and insightful. Wisniewski has crafted a soulful thriller that kept me guessing until the final page." —Alethea Black, author of I Knew Youd Be Lovely
Synopsis
A fabulous noir. Daniel Woodrell Thoughtful, complex and compassionate. Dan Chaon Mark Wisniewski is a damn good writer. Ben Fountain
Winter s Bone meets The Wire, Watch Me Go is an edgy, soulful meditation on the meaning of love, the injustices of hate, and the power of hope
Douglas Deesh Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayal and the prime suspect in the murders of three white men.
When Jan, a young jockey from the gritty underworld of the Finger Lakes racetrack breaks her silence about gambling and organized crime, Deesh learns how the story of her past might, against all odds, free him from a life behind bars.
Interweaving Deesh s and Jan s gripping narratives, Watch Me Go is a wonderfully insightful work that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive for justice. At once compulsively readable, thought-provoking, and complex, itis a suspenseful, compassionate meditation on the power of love and the injustices of hate.
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Synopsis
"A fabulous noir."--Daniel Woodrell "Thoughtful, complex and compassionate."--Dan Chaon
"Mark Wisniewski is a damn good writer."--Ben Fountain
Winter's Bone meets The Wire in this edgy, soulful meditation on the meaning of love, the injustices of hate, and the power of hope.
Douglas "Deesh" Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayal--and the prime suspect in the murders of three white men.
When Jan, a young jockey from the gritty underworld of the Finger Lakes racetrack breaks her silence about gambling and organized crime, Deesh learns how the story of her past might, against all odds, free him from a life behind bars.
Interweaving Deesh's and Jan's gripping narratives, Watch Me Go is a wonderfully insightful work that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive for justice. At once compulsively readable, thought-provoking, and complex, it is a suspenseful, compassionate meditation on the power of love and the injustices of hate.
Synopsis
Richard Price meets A Simple Plan in this soulful, riveting work that examines how we love and how we hateand that, ultimately, no matter how high the odds, there can always be hope.
Jan, a young female jockey aspiring to win at horse racing and love, breaks her silence about organized crime to try to save the life of Deesh, an imprisoned black man she doesnt know, whos been falsely accused of three murders. As Deesh and Jan recount the events that sent their lives spiraling out of control, they piece together the whole story and understand how they each fit into it. Suspenseful yet compassionate, Watch Me Go is a heart-stopping tour de force that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive once more for loveand, ultimately, how regardless of how fast or how far we run, there is no escaping the daring impulses and human vulnerability in all of us.
About the Author
Mark Wisniewskis fiction has been published in The Best American Short Stories, The Southern Review, Antioch Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His stories have won a Pushcart Prize and a Tobias Wolff Award, and numerous fellowships in fiction. He lives with his wife on a lake in upstate New York.