From Before Memory
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pushkin Press
Publishing:11th Feb '27
£12.99
This title is due to be published on 11th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
America in the near future is the same, but worse. There's no national government anymore. Only local authorities endure, and they barely function. The real glue holding what's left of society together is death. In this America, everyone who dies is celebrated in a lengthy funeral rite by their entire community, the body sewn into an oxhide and hung next to all the others on the town's main street. The whole ritual is led by the oldest member of the community, according to an undeviating script. Maxine is one such elder - 99 years old and living in Lakeport, California. Dogged by chronic pain and the indignity of ageing, burdened by grief and above all by boredom, one day she does the unthinkable and changes the words of the funeral rite. Contrary to her expectations, the entire community follows her lead, and the rebellion gathers momentum, unleashing a spate of violence that may transform the whole disintegrating nation. Initially horrified, Maxine is soon intoxicated by her new powers, and finds herself leading funeral rites that resemble political rallies or bacchanals more than solemn ceremonies. When she launches a pilgrimage across the California desert, it triggers a confrontation with the remaining institutional forces of the country - a confrontation she may not survive. A furiously funny satire on contemporary America, as well as a moving meditation on grief and how it binds us together, this utterly propulsive novel marks an exciting new departure from the author of international bestseller Legend of a Suicide.
Vann is a daring writer, as bold in his plot development as he is unflinching in his prose... One of America's most powerful writers * TLS *
"From Before Memory is like nothing else - a furiously funny and engagingly human tale that swings between satire and heartbreak. ... Part Vonnegut, part Flannery O'Connor, this is a wild and intimate take on our dissolving times. ... The novel holds death in one hand and absurdity in the other, and somehow makes them sing together." -- Colum McCann
Vann's gift - his quest, almost - is a willingness to explore the unimaginable, the unthinkable, on the page. He is the real thing - a mature, risk-taking and fantastically adept fiction writer who dares go to the darkest places, explore their most appalling corners * Observer *
A fearless navigator of dark themes * New York Times *
One of the best writers of his generation * Le Figaro *
Vann's prose follows the sinews of Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway, yet has its own nimble flex * The Times *
Reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Vann's prose is as pure as a gulp of water from an Alaskan stream * Financial Times *
Words and ideas seem almost dangerous in his hands and yet his work is full of heart. For me that's probably the definition of perfection in fiction * New Statesman *
Vann has mapped out a unique fictional territory, a rugged, literary landscape with debts to Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway but with an acuteness of eye that's all the author's own * Big Issue *
David Vann is at once the most timely and timeless of writers * Robert Olen Butler *
From Before Memory exceeds all expectations - it's the finest, wildest novel I've read in years. This is Vann at his blistering apocalyptic best ... A tale of death that transforms into an uproarious paean to life's endless rebellions. -- Junot Diaz
Fierce times demand fierce satire, and in this darkly comic novel, DavidVann delivers an apocalyptic prophecy of an America consumed by chaos and violence. What readers admire in Vann's previous novels-a poet's sense of language, memorable characters, and engaging plot-is here in abundance, but also something new and vital. -- Ron Rash
ISBN: 9781805338307
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
224 pages