Universal Harvester
Overview
From the cult author of Wolf in White Van comes a horror- infused thriller set in a tiny Midwestern town; Clerks meets Cormac McCarthy.
Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s the 1990s, pre-DVD, and the work is predictable and familiar; he likes his boss, and it gets him out of the house.
But when a local schoolteacher comes in to return her copy of Targets, she has an odd complaint: ‘There’s something on it,’ she says. Two days later, another customer brings back She’s All That and complains that something is wrong: ‘There’s another movie on this tape.’
Curious, Jeremy takes a look. And what he sees on the videos is so strange and disturbing that it propels him out of his comfortable routine and into a search for the tapes’ creator. As the once-peaceful fields and barns of the Iowa landscape begin to seem sinister and threatening, Jeremy must come to terms with a truth that is as devastatingly sad as it is shocking.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Paperback
- 210mm x 135mm
- 224 pages
- 9781925321937
- AUD$29.99
- 3 March 2017
- UK & Commonwealth ex Can
Categories
Praise
‘A slow-burn mystery/thriller whose characters are drawn together by an eerie discovery … Darnielle adeptly juggles multiple stories that collide with chaotic consequences somewhere in the middle of nowhere.’ STARRED REVIEW
‘Darnielle’s second novel opens like a dark suspense story; his descriptions of the VHS scenes are written in a deadpan style to evoke maximum dread. But he ultimately pursues a softer and more nuanced exploration of family and loss.’
About the Author
John Darnielle is the author of the novels Devil House, Universal Harvester, and Wolf in White Van, all three New York Times bestsellers. Wolf in White Van was a National Book Award nominee and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction. Universal Harvester was a finalist for the Locus Award. Darnielle lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and sons when he's not on the road touring with his band the Mountain Goats.
