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Jess Walter SO FAR GONE author talk and book signing
Featured Book

So Far Gone
National Bestseller Finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize "A warm, funny, loving novel. . . . It's an American original."—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake "Searing and sublime … Walter is a slyly adept social critic, and has clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken ... What gets us all through … are novels like this one.” Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times. 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).
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
Jess Walter, #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist, discusses his novel "So Far Gone" at Bookends & Beginnings.
On Thursday, June 11, National Book Award finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter will discuss his new novel about the dysfunction of modern America, SO FAR GONE, at Bookends & Beginnings.
When Jess unexpectedly had to cancel his Chicago trip to Bookends last year for the hardcover launch of SO FAR GONE we (and you!) were devastated - we LOVE this book! SO, we were THRILLED when Jess announced he'd be here this year, for the paperback launch. If you already have the hard copy, bring it for Jess to sign, and we'll also have plenty of paperback copies on hand!
Walter's highly anticipated eighth novel is a biting, heartfelt, and sharply comic story about a reclusive journalist, Rhys Kinnick, who reemerges from a self-imposed exile to rescue his missing grandchildren from a fringe militia group. What follows is a raucous and tender road trip across a deeply divided America, populated by unlikely companions and the ghosts of Kinnick’s own regrets. With the acumen that has made Walter a literary standout, the novel dives into the absurdities and anxieties of contemporary life, all while maintaining a buoyant, human core.
Featured Author
Jess Walter
JESS WALTER is the author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, and the National Book Award Finalist The Zero. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.
About the Venue

Bookends & Beginnings
Eclectic indie store in the heart of downtown Evanston. New & used books and gifts. With an outstanding cookbook section and kids’ books in foreign languages.
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