Wade Whitehouse splits his time between digging wells and working as a policeman in a forgotten corner of New Hampshire. The former high school athlete has let himself go soft around the middle, nursing beers and nursing grudges in equal measure. Wade carries himself like a man with something to prove, quick to anger and slow to forgive. His younger brother watches from a distance, articulate where Wade stumbles over words, successful where Wade has settled for less. The brother understands what drives Wade because they share the same scars, the same inheritance of masculine rage passed down like a family heirloom. As Wade's frustrations build in the gray winter landscape, his story unfolds with the terrible logic of a lit fuse. Banks reveals how ordinary American men can be crushed by the weight of expectations they never chose, trapped by codes of behavior that promise strength but deliver only isolation.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New Hampshire
Period: 20th-century
Paperback · Wereldbibliotheek
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness