Pacific

In a triumphant return to the characters thatlaunched his career two decades ago, Tom Drury travels back to Grouse County,the setting of his landmark debut, TheEnd of Vandalism. Drury's depictions of the stark beauty of the Midwest andthe futility of American wanderlust have earned him comparisons to RaymondCarver, Sherwood Anderson, and Paul Auster.When fourteen-year-old Micah Darling travelsto Los Angeles to reunite with the mother, who deserted him seven years ago, hefinds himself out of his league in a land of magical freedom. He does new drugswith new people, falls in love with an enchanting but troubled equestriennenamed Charlotte, and gets thrown out of school over the activities of a clubcalled the New Luddites.Back in the Midwest, an ethereal young womancomes to Stone City on a mission that will unsettle the lives of everyone shemeets—including Micah's half-sister, Lyris, who still fights fears ofabandonment after a childhood in foster care, and Micah's father, Tiny, a pettythief. An investigation into the stranger's identity uncovers a darklydisturbed life, as parallel narratives of the comic and tragic, the mysteriousand the everyday, unfold in both the country and the city.A portrait of two disparate communitiesunited by the restlessness and desperate hope of their residents, Drury'shaunted souls, adrift between promise and circumstance, reveal our infinitecapacity to "get in and out of trouble in unexpected ways" and still find asemblance of peace at the end.