Staff Pick
I was first captured by David Joy's writing in his debut, Where All Light Tends to Go. His sophomore effort lives up to the promise he made in his first novel. Brutally sparse, haunting prose pulls you in from the first word and echoes in your head for days after the heartbreaking closing chapter. Not a single word in wasted in this novel, each piece pulling together into a sad story of the pasts we cannot escape and the futures many of us cannot attain. Recommended By Deana R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Critically acclaimed author David Joy, whose debut Where All Light Tends to Go was hailed as "a savagely moving novel that will likely become an important addition to the great body of Southern literature" (Huffington Post), returns to the mountains of North Carolina with a powerful story about the inescapable weight of the past. A combat veteran returned from war, Thad Broom can't leave the hardened world of Afghanistan behind, nor can he forgive himself for what he saw there. His mother, April, is haunted by her own demons, a secret trauma she has carried for years. Between them is Aiden McCall, loyal to both but unable to hold them together. Connected by bonds of circumstance and duty, friendship and love, these three lives are blown apart when Aiden and Thad witness the accidental death of their drug dealer and a riot of dope and cash drops in their laps. On a meth-fueled journey to nowhere, they will either find the grit to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it.