First published 2008
Mitch Hrlicka plays football for his high school team in Owl, North Dakota. He questions whether he fits in or stands out too much in his tiny town. Julia Rabia arrives as the new teacher and discovers free drinks at the local bar. She becomes involved with a bison farmer who hates himself and plays Rolling Stones albums. Horace Jones has spent seventy three years in Owl. He drinks coffee and remembers his deceased wife while watching the town around him. The three characters live in the same place but never cross paths in meaningful ways. Disco music has faded but punk rock never reached their corner of North Dakota. Cable television does not exist. Pop culture means grain prices and drinking problems. People work until they die. They distrust government and get teenage girls pregnant. Despite this harsh reality, moments of beauty emerge. A massive blizzard connects their separate stories. Klosterman examines what normal means when rural myths and brutal facts become identical.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, interconnected-stories
Setting: North Dakota, Owl
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
275 pages · Hardcover · Scribner