by Wells Tower
First published 2009
Viking marauders arrive at a frequently raided island, seeking violence to cure their seasonal depression. Meanwhile, a husband gets kicked out after his wife finds an unfamiliar bare footprint on his car windshield. Teenage cousins spend a drug-hazed summer that leads to a violent confrontation in the forest. A boy flees to join the carnival after his stepfather attacks him during a fight. Wells Tower follows these fractured families as they break apart and attempt clumsy repairs. His characters inhabit the margins of American life: inventors whose schemes fail, fathers who disappoint, dreamers who drink too much, sons who lose their way. The stories move between ancient brutality and modern dysfunction, finding dark humor in both. Tower writes with sharp wit about people who live outside conventional success, capturing their seamy dignity and stubborn hope.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fractured-families, unreliable-narrator
Setting: America
Period: 21st-century
238 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: abuse, violence