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.



David Vann is the author of a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction published in over 23 languages. His debut novel Legend of a Suicide won eleven literary awards, including the Prix Medicis Étranger and Premi Llibreter. He has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Statesman, and McSweeney's, among other periodicals. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Born in Alaska, he now divides his time between New Zealand, the Philippines and France.



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



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



A fearless navigator of dark themes



One of the best writers of his generation



Vann's prose follows the sinews of Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway, yet has its own nimble flex



Reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Vann's prose is as pure as a gulp of water from an Alaskan stream



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



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



David Vann is at once the most timely and timeless of writers