Overview

In this shattering and iconic American novel, PEN prize-winning writer, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions. After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face to face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the F.B.I., putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.

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9781483004679

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Reviews

American actor MacLeod Andrews delivers the main text in Pete's voice, which varies from amiable and reassuring to resigned and appalled. He lends different voices to the various other characters: drug-addled deadbeats, a religion-obsessed mountain man, a bibulous judge, bullying cops and a couple of boys brought up rough and illiterate. The novel includes intermittent reports from Pete's daughter, her soft-toned voice provided by Jenna Lamia, a poignant addition to a surprising and compassionate story. -- Washington Post (audio review) Fourth of July Creek cannot possibly be Smith Henderson's first book. Its scope is audacious, its range virtuosic, its gaze steady and true. A riveting story written in a seductive and relentlessly authentic rural American vernacular, this is the kind of novel I wish I'd written. -- Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn Fourth of July Creek knocked me flat. This gorgeous, full-bodied novel seems to contain all of America at what was, in retrospect, a pivotal moment in its history...Smith Henderson has delivered nothing less than a masterpiece of a novel. -- Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Fourth of July Creek is an astonishing read. The writing is energetic and precise. Henderson has a mastery of scale that allows this particular place and these particular people to illuminate who we are as Americans...I could not recommend this book more highly. -- Kevin Powers, bestselling author of The Yellow Birds Expertly written and without a false note. -- Kirkus Reviews Henderson not only displays an uncanny sense of place...he also creates an incredibly rich cast of characters...Dark, gritty, and oh so good. -- Booklist (starred review) On a political level, Henderson skillfully presages the contemporary political environment in his portrayal of the America of three decades ago. On a deeper level, this dark, compassionate novel finds in Jeremiah's-and Pete's-pain a mirror of everyone's. This is a significant debut. -- Library Journal (starred review) MacLeod Andrews narrates this dark, intense exploration of love and disenchantment in a low conversational tone...Andrews' voices for male characters, such as Jeremiah Pearl and his son, are enhanced by his empathic tones and consistent volumes. Henderson's lyrical prose is also lovingly delivered by Jenna Lamia, who gives empathy to her characterization of Pete's daughter, Rachel. The setting is bleak, and the characters are flawed, yet the story is unforgettable...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile Infused with psychological complexity and lush with the landscape of the Northwest. -- Washington Post This is a hell of a great book. -- Esquire First novels don't come much more confidently written or fully imagined than this. -- New York Times This book left me awestruck; a stunning debut which reads like the work of a writer at the height of his power...A masterful achievement. -- Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author

American actor MacLeod Andrews delivers the main text in Pete's voice, which varies from amiable and reassuring to resigned and appalled. He lends different voices to the various other characters: drug-addled deadbeats, a religion-obsessed mountain man, a bibulous judge, bullying cops and a couple of boys brought up rough and illiterate. The novel includes intermittent reports from Pete's daughter, her soft-toned voice provided by Jenna Lamia, a poignant addition to a surprising and compassionate story. -- Washington Post (audio review) Fourth of July Creek cannot possibly be Smith Henderson's first book. Its scope is audacious, its range virtuosic, its gaze steady and true. A riveting story written in a seductive and relentlessly authentic rural American vernacular, this is the kind of novel I wish I'd written. -- Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn Fourth of July Creek knocked me flat. This gorgeous, full-bodied novel seems to contain all of America at what was, in retrospect, a pivotal moment in its history...Smith Henderson has delivered nothing less than a masterpiece of a novel. -- Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Fourth of July Creek is an astonishing read. The writing is energetic and precise. Henderson has a mastery of scale that allows this particular place and these particular people to illuminate who we are as Americans...I could not recommend this book more highly. -- Kevin Powers, bestselling author of The Yellow Birds Expertly written and without a false note. -- Kirkus Reviews Henderson not only displays an uncanny sense of place...he also creates an incredibly rich cast of characters...Dark, gritty, and oh so good. -- Booklist (starred review) On a political level, Henderson skillfully presages the contemporary political environment in his portrayal of the America of three decades ago. On a deeper level, this dark, compassionate novel finds in Jeremiah's-and Pete's-pain a mirror of everyone's. This is a significant debut. -- Library Journal (starred review) MacLeod Andrews narrates this dark, intense exploration of love and disenchantment in a low conversational tone...Andrews' voices for male characters, such as Jeremiah Pearl and his son, are enhanced by his empathic tones and consistent volumes. Henderson's lyrical prose is also lovingly delivered by Jenna Lamia, who gives empathy to her characterization of Pete's daughter, Rachel. The setting is bleak, and the characters are flawed, yet the story is unforgettable...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile Infused with psychological complexity and lush with the landscape of the Northwest. -- Washington Post First novels don't come much more confidently written or fully imagined than this. -- New York Times This is a hell of a great book. -- Esquire This book left me awestruck; a stunning debut which reads like the work of a writer at the height of his power...A masterful achievement. -- Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Smith Henderson is the recipient of a PEN Emerging Writers Award in fiction. He was a Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell University, a Pushcart Prize winner, and a Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. He currently works at the Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency. His fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, One Story, New Orleans Review, Makeout Creek, and Witness. Born and raised in Montana, he now lives in Portland, Oregon. MacLeod Andrews is an actor, voice actor, and Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator who earned the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. He has starred in a number of independent short and feature films and is a member of the Rising Phoenix Repertory Company in New York City. Jenna Lamia is an actress and award-winning audiobook narrator. She has won the prestigious Audie Award, as well as more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her narration of The Book of Polly was named a 2018 Outstanding Audiobook Narration by RUSA. She narrated Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which won a YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults award, and Carol Lynch Williams' The Chosen One, for which she received the 2010 Audie Award for Best Female Solo Narration. She has appeared on and off-Broadway, and her acting credits include appearances on Oz, Law & Order: SVU, and NYPD Blue. She has attended Amherst College, New York University, and the Sorbonne in Paris.

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