Description

A man is thrown out of his home after his wife discovers that the sweat-smudged footprint on the inside of his windscreen doesn’t match her own. Teenage cousins, drugged by summer, meet with a reckoning in the woods. A boy runs off to the carnival after his stepfather bites him in a brawl. In the stories of Wells Tower, families fall apart and messily, hilariously try to reassemble themselves. His characters – marauding Vikings, washed-up entrepreneurs and jobbing hacks on local papers – are adrift from the mainstream, confused by contemporary masculinity, angry and aimless. Combining electric prose with compassion and dark wit, this is a major debut.

Publisher Review

"Wells Tower is a blindingly brilliant writer who does more than raise the bar for debut fiction: he hurls it into space. With the oversized heart of George Saunders, the demon tongue of Barry Hannah, and his very own conjuring tools that cannot here be named, Tower writes stories of aching beauty that are as crushingly funny and sad as any on the planet." --Ben Marcus, author of "Notable American Women "and "The Age of Wire and String" "This arresting debut collection of stories decisively establishes Mr. Tower as a writer of uncommon talent."--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" "Artful and funny and empathetic. His fictional universe is a perfectly balanced little biosphere of violence and mercy, aggression and nurturing."--Sam Anderson, "New York" magazine "A striking, often savage first collection of stories. Tower's language is as compact and muscular as a wrestler's body."--Heller McAlpin, "San Francisco Chronicle""" "Tower writes about raggedy men, neglected boys, and quarrelsome Vikings who are down on their luck (if they ever had any). But the stories are very funny, and surprising, and possess a rugged beauty."--Vendela Vida, "Vanity Fair""" "Tower seems incapable of writing a boring description. A crackling, head-turning debut."--Jonathan Miles, "Men's Journal""" "It sometimes feels as if there's nothing Tower can't render in arresting fashion. His "We need books like "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" . . . What [Tower's] portraits lack in grandeur, they compensate for in their accuracy . . . [The characters] live the way we Americans do." --Benjamin Alsup, "Esquire ""[An] outstanding debut collection . . . The strange and magnificent title story, in which Vikings set off again toward an oft-raided island, beautifully ties the collection together in its heartbreaking final paragraph. Tower's uncommon mastery of tone and wide-ranging sympathy creates a fine tension between wry humor and the primal rage that seethes just below the surface of each of his characters." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred review and Pick of the Week) "The title barely hints at the scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners power of the stories." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review) "Tower's debut story collection confirms what readers of "Harper's," "McSweeney's," "The Paris Review," and other major publications have known for some time: Tower is a serious talent . . . Tower's voice is honest and strange, humorous and insightful."--Kevin Clouther, "Booklist ""Outstanding . . . Tower has crafted a powerful and assured debut collection." --Lawrence Rungren, "Library Journal ""Wells Tower's stories are written, thrillingly, in authentic American vernacular--violent, funny, bleak, and beautiful. You need to read them, now." --Michael Chabon, author of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay " "These are lurid, ingenious, beautiful, delicate, and very funny stories. Full of pity and terror, they are also great fun to read. Wells Tower has written a brilliant book." --Benjamin Kunkel, author of"Indecision ""Wells Tower is a blindingly brilliant writer who does more than raise the bar for debut fiction: he hurls it into space. With the oversized heart of George Saunders, the demon tongue of Barry Hannah, and his very own conjuring tools that cannot here be named, Tower writes stories of aching beauty that are as crushingly funny and sad as any on the planet." --Ben Marcus, author of "Notable American Women" and "The Age of Wire and String" "[An] outstanding debut collection . . . The strange and magnificent title story, in which Vikings set off again toward an oft-raided island, beautifully ties the collection together in its heartbreaking final paragraph. Tower's uncommon mastery of tone and wide-ranging sympathy creates a fine tension between wry humor and the primal rage that seethes just below the surface of each of his characters." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred review and Pick of the Week) "The title barely hints at the scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners power of the stories." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review) "Wells Tower's stories are written, thrillingly, in authentic American vernacular--violent, funny, bleak, and beautiful. You need to read them, now." --Michael Chabon, author of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay " "These are lurid, ingenious, beautiful, delicate, and very funny stories. Full of pity and terror, they are also great fun to read. Wells Tower has written a brilliant book." --Benjamin Kunkel, author of "Indecision ""Wells Tower is a blindingly brilliant writer who does more than raise the bar for debut fiction: he hurls it into space. With the oversized heart of George Saunders, the demon tongue of Barry Hannah, and his very own conjuring tools that cannot here be named, Tower writes stories of aching beauty that are as crushingly funny and sad as any on the planet." --Ben Marcus, author of "Notable American Women" and "The Age of Wire and String" "These are lurid, ingenious, beautiful, delicate, and very funny stories. Full of pity and terror, they are also great fun to read. Wells Tower has written a brilliant book." --Benjamin Kunkel, author of "Indecision ""Wells Tower's stories are written, thrillingly, in authentic American vernacular--violent, funny, bleak, and beautiful. You need to read them, now." --Michael Chabon, author of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" "Wells Tower is a blindingly brilliant writer who does more than raise the bar for debut fiction: he hurls it into space. With the oversized heart of George Saunders, the demon tongue of Barry Hannah, and his very own conjuring tools that cannot here be named, Tower writes stories of aching beauty that are as crushingly funny and sad as any on the planet." --Ben Marcus, author of "Notable American Women" and "The Age of Wire and String"