So Far Gone - A Novel

"A warm, funny, loving novel. . . . It's an American original."-Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"So Far Gone is a marvel."-Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins-and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis' True Grit-comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid. At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons.

Now Kinnick's old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he'd left behind. So Far Gone is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called "a genius of the modern American moment" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Rezension:

A Publishers Weekly & Washington Post "Most Anticipated" A Vogue "Best Book of the Year" -

"So Far Gone is a marvel-a taut literary thriller that is also a moving, deeply humane exploration of the way one family falls apart and puts itself back together in a moment of crisis. Jess Walter is a prodigiously talented novelist, a writer willing to confront some of the most important and divisive issues of our time without losing his nerve or his sense of humor. " - Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers

"Jess Walter is beloved for being a prose wizard with a sparkling, infectious sense of humor and a huge heart. He makes readers love his characters even when they don't find themselves particularly loveable. So Far Gone speaks directly into the profoundly troubled soul of our fractured, embittered country; miraculously, it does so with gentle wryness and angry love. What a rollicking good time." - Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling aut hor of Matrix

"I loved this book, and marveled how Jess Walter managed to build such a warm, funny, loving novel out of so many horrible parts. It's an American original." - Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"A tumultuous road trip through a tumultuous America."
- Washington Post, Books to Watch for in 2025

"Like Station Eleven and The Handmaid's Tale, this novel by Walter (The Angels of Rome and Other Stories) feels both prescient and timely yet with a backward glance....Gritty survivalist stories, from bunkers to bar rooms, converge in this propulsive novel that glances backward to 2016 while signaling what dangers come to fruition when people relinquish human bonds in favor of ideological fervor....This work is a tremendous achievement... with an urgency that may make it one of the strongest realist but dystopian novels of the present era." - Library Journal (starred review)

"Propulsive...Walter serves up a rollicking a nd heartrending adventure about a broken man determined to set things right in an increasingly divided America....Walter offers an honest and even touching look at the [characters'] need for purpose while finding deadpan humor in their failings....This captivates." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The characters are created with loving care, the plot with reckless glee; Walter seems as fed up with various aspects of modern life as the smartphone-hating Rhys, and gives his version of the modern Northwest a distinctly Old West vibrational overlay....Walter is a beacon of wit, decency, and style." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"I've learned from Walter's superb stories and novels to follow him wherever he takes me." - Publishers Weekly

"There is both hurt and healing in So Far Gone in its depiction of both a society that can seem so far gone down the wrong road and people who want to do the right thing." - Daily Kos