West of Loveland

Summary

“A memorable novel that will make the world a less lonely and more mysterious place.”—Yiyun Li, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Things in Nature Merely Grow

The award-winning author of the classic The End of Vandalism returns to the Midwestern county he’s chronicled over four decades for a panoramic tale of fate, found families, and the revolutionary possibilities of love

A lonely highway, a traveler, and a revolver … Teenage Rocky and his aunt Helen’s roadside discovery on a winter afternoon sets off a mysterious yet inevitable chain of events that will assemble citizens of Grouse County in a quest for knowledge, romance, and an occasional shared supper with a decent bottle of wine. Characters from Drury’s previous novels—the stoic sheriff, the red-headed photographer, the retired thief—are joined by a vibrant new cast including a trio of teens in a secret club named after a nineteenth-century suffragette, a reverend doctor who counsels her flock to perform good works and dance on houseboats, and an amateur film scholar who inspires a meet-cute in a plasma donation center.

Marked by uncanny dialogue, subversive humor, and indelible descriptions of natural and human beauty, West of Loveland is a warm and polyphonic portrait of a singular community navigating a version of contemporary life with grace and an enduring belief that something good might happen. Drury’s masterwork and the capstone of what is now the Grouse County quartet, West of Loveland offers a revolutionary view of the rural Midwest and a quiet homage to American democracy.