In just a few short days, the quiet town of Hawthorn, Missouri will be wiped from the face of the earth.
At least that's what 17-year-old Eric Redmond believes. He spends his days after school holed up in his bedroom, endlessly writing - violently jotting down rambling diatribes in a stained old notebook with the made-up word "Tweakerbook" etched on the cover in thick, wild-growing stalks of black Sharpie ink. Yes, Eric Redmond is "crazy."
But what if he's right?
It's a creeping suspicion to which no one in the Redmond family wants to admit, least of all Eric's father Harold, a prominent Baptist preacher. But sometimes, he could feel Eric's prescience in his bones. Even Eric's adopted brother, Daniel - the most level-headed, blandly pleasant, boring person alive - wonders sometimes if the fractures in Eric's noggin gave him some sort of psychic edge on the plebeians around them.The Redmond boys met in the middle of an American heartland that seemed perpetually in decline: shambolic trailer parks, a meth epidemic, and indifference between neighbors, but with the refuge of religion. Here, communities of blue-collar workers resigned to a lifetime of beige depression - descendants of cultural calamities, armed only with the hope of one day living their dreams - give up their anxieties and weekly tithes to the Lord as well as to a charismatic pastor, Eric's father Harold Redmond.On the surface, it seems Father Redmond leads Hawthorn to the prosperity of which the townsfolk had always dreamed. However, even with these new positive developments, the underbelly of Hawthorn still thrives: crime, drugs, and wealth disparities. The fiercest rebel against this newly established version of Hawthorn resides in Father Redmond's own home - his son, Eric.After a tragic incident, Eric and Daniel become adopted brothers. Their bond carries them through a tumultuous life, weighed heavy with dark secrets. It endures even after Eric has grown up to be a respectable man, and Daniel has become a shadow of his former self. Their bond is broken somewhere in the murky depths of the dysfunctional family unit -or does it endure? Horrifying, humorous, irreverent and tragic,
The Ghosts of Hawthorn, Missouri
is a work that bursts with pain, and with life. It explores the deep valleys between love and lives well-lived, the cyclical nature of time, bigotry, the cult of personality, and the complicated dynamics of subjection and dominance. While the story spans centuries and steps its toe into the near future that Peet has shrewdly predicted, it is a novel that is as timely as it is timeless. A work that delves headfirst into American anxieties of The Other, The Ghosts of Hawthorn, Missouri is a vibrant portrait of a mad world that shines a light in the darkest of places.
Named to
Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of The Year List.
Perfect for fans of Delia Owens, Robert Dugoni, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.