Wolf in White Van

The title refers to "Backmasking": the idea that playing a record backwards reveals satanic messages. This mind-bending book unfolds backwards. Darnielle's words are honest and poignant and expressive. I love this book. Made my family read it! Recommended By Lesley A., Powells.com

This book maps the relief offered by an escape into fantasy while demonstrating the danger of it overtaking you. Beautifully crafted, Wolf in White Van is a work of deep empathy for the desperate. Recommended By Keith M., Powells.com

Long-listed for the 2014 National Book Award in fiction
Winner of the 2015 Alex Award for adult books with special appeal for young adults

Welcome to Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival! You may now make your first move. Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the creator of Trace Italian—a text-based, role-playing game played through the mail—Sean guides players from around the world through his intricately imagined terrain, which they navigate and explore, turn by turn, seeking sanctuary in a ravaged, savage future America.

Lance and Carrie are high school students from Florida, explorers of the Trace. But when they take their play into the real world, disaster strikes, and Sean is called to account for it. In the process, he is pulled back through time, tunneling toward the moment of his own self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live.

Brilliantly constructed, Wolf in White Van unfolds in reverse until we arrive at both the beginning and the climax: the event that has shaped so much of Sean's life. Beautifully written and unexpectedly moving, John Darnielle's audacious and gripping debut novel is a marvel of storytelling brio and genuine literary delicacy.

“A stunning meditation on the power of escape, and on the cat-and-mouse contest the self plays to deflect its own guilt.” Ethan Gilsdorf, The New York Times Book Review

“An electric debut novel.” O: The Oprah Magazine

“John Darnielle's amazing novel digs into an artist's unspoken fears . . . Like Darnielle's songwriting, the prose is often cryptic and then stunningly clear, microscopically specific and then audaciously grand. The words soothe for sentences at a time, then strike with blunt force.” Carl Wilson, Slate

John Darnielle is a writer, composer, guitarist, and vocalist for the band the Mountain Goats; he is widely considered one of the best lyricists of his generation. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and son.