Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction
Weblink
david-joy.com/WhereAllLightTends …

WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO

David Joy

In the meth-dealing McNeely family, killing a man is a rite of passage, but when eighteen-year-old Jacob McNeely botches a murder, he is torn between appeasing his kingpin father and leaving the mountains with the girl he loves.

WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO follows Jacob’s search for escape from the only place he has ever known. The area surrounding Cashiers, North Carolina, is home to people of all kinds, but the world that Jacob lives in is crueler than most. His father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. His estranged mother has been so ravaged by the drug that Jacob has seen her clean only a handful of times in his 18 years. Having dropped out of high school two years earlier, subsequently cutting himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for father for years, all on the promise that his payday will eventually come. The only joy he finds comes from reuniting with Maggie, his first love, a girl clearly bound for bigger and better things than Appalachia. The world that Jacob inhabits is bleak and unrelenting in its violence and disregard for human life, and having known nothing more, Jacob wonders if he can muster the strength to rise above it.

David Joy is the author of the novel Where All Light Tends to Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as two books of literary nonfiction: Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), which was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award for Creative Nonfiction, and Ruth: A Beautiful Dismantling (Rivers and Roads Publishing, 2014).

Available products
Book Published 2015-03-01 by Putnam
Book Published 2015-03-01 by Putnam

Comments

Where All Light Tends to Go is lyrical, propulsive, dark and compelling. In this debut novel, David Joy makes it clear that he knows well the grit and gravel of his world, the soul and blemishes of the place. He uses details that put us inside the picture, and lets his narrative move at a graceful but restless pace.

Joy’s first novel is an uncompromising noir, its downward thrust pulling like quicksand on both the characters and the reader. And, yet, there is poetry here, too, as there is in Daniel Woodrell’s novels, the kind of poetry that draws its power from a doomed character’s grit in the face of disaster. . . This is the start of a very promising fiction-writing career.

Compelling and authentic . . . a harsh tale of young love’s tender hopes set against the brutal realities of ruined Appalachia. Jacob McNeely’s story is one worth reading.

David Joy's Where All Light Tends to Go will be compared to a handful of grit lit masterpieces, but Joy's his own writer. It's a double page turner--I couldn't stop reading, but I relished each page twice, mesmerized by the language and plot twists. For every scene of evil personified, there's goodness. For every horrific act of lawless characters, there's the sublime. I'll remember—and be haunted by—this novel for a long, long time.

Author David Joy will attend the prestigious Festival America in France in September 2016 Read more...

At the heart of darkness rests David Joy's accomplished debut... This beautiful, brutal book begins with Jacob despairing he's 'let what [he] was born into control what [he'd] become,' a realization that circumstances and love eventually force him to defy.

Readers of Southern grit lit in the tradition of Daniel Woodrell and Harry Crews will enjoy this fast-paced debut thriller. Fans of Ron Rash’s novels will appreciate the intricate plot and Joy’s establishment of a strong sense of place in his depiction of rural Appalachia.

Where All Light Tends to Go is deeply rooted in place, written in an assured, authentic voice. David Joy manages to be both lyrical and gritty, loving and horrifyingly violent, funny and grim. His picture of modern Appalachia is rich and evocative, with bold storytelling not often seen in a first novel. This book is an amazing start to a career that could make Joy the Larry Brown of the Appalachians.

Bound to draw comparisons to Daniel Woodrell's 'Winter's Bone’...[Joy’s] moments of poetic cognizance are the stuff of fine fiction, lyrical sweets that will keep readers turning pages...'Where All Light Tends To Go' is a book that discloses itself gradually, like a sunrise peeking over a distant mountain range...If [Joy's next novel] is anything like his first, it'll be worth the wait.

Running with the dopers, drunks and less fortunate in my youth, those who were doomed by their surroundings, the story that David Joy tells is one of truth, power and circumstance and quite possibly a tour de force in American letters.

Where All Light Tends to Go reads like the whiskey-breath of Harry Crews word-drunk on the lyricism of Daniel Woodrell. It’s as brutally beautiful as it is heartbreaking.

French: Sonatine Editions

David Joy writes under the auspices of community, heartbreak, and love, and makes use of the warmest color in fiction - gray. What is right and what is wrong and who is to decide? In the North Carolina mountains, these answers don't come easy. Big decisions come with big consequences, and if you second guess, you lose.

David Joy gives us a world that is equal parts graceful beauty and true grit in this poetic and heart-pounding novel. Where All Light Tends to Go contains those essential elements for a novel that ‘sticks to the ribs’: complex and memorable characters, a palpable sense of place, and a plot that is driven as much by suspense as lyricism. You won't be able to put down this profoundly moving and illuminating look into a mysterious and intricate world where the smell of the southern pines mingles with the scent of cooking meth.

David Joy has written a savage and moving account of a young man’s attempt to transcend his family’s legacy of violence. WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO is an outstanding debut and a fine addition to the country noir vein of Southern Literature.

Gripping . . . Engaging characters, a well-realized setting, and poetic prose establish Joy as a novelist worth watching. Read more...