New Everett

Percival Everett has a new novel out next month called The Water Cure, described by publisher Graywolf Press as the “chilling confession of a victim turned villain.” Here’s what they say about it:

Ishmael Kidder is a successful romance novelist. His agent is coming to visit her usually productive client. But Kidder’s eleven-year-old daughter has been brutally murdered, and it stands to reason that he must take revenge by any means necessary. The punishment is carried out without guilt, and with the usual equipment—duct tape, rope, and super glue. But how will he explain the noises in the basement to his agent? How does he know he has the right man?

Everett read an excerpt from The Water Cure at last year’s Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, and I remember it vividly; it was a scene in which the father finds out that his daughter is missing, and goes to his ex-wife’s house to wait for the police. Heartbreaking, terrifying, and yet at the same time laced with the usual Everett humor.

(Via TEV)