Ohio - Paperback

by Stephen Markley (Author)

"Extraordinary...beautifully precise...[an] earnestly ambitious debut." --The New York Times Book Review "A wild, angry, and devastating masterpiece of a book." --NPR "[A] descendent of the Dickensian 'social novel' by way of Jonathan Franzen: epic fiction that lays bare contemporary culture clashes, showing us who we are and how we got here." --Oprah Daily "A book that has stayed with me ever since I put it down." --Seth Meyers, host of Late Night with Seth MeyersOne sweltering night in 2013, four former high school classmates converge on their hometown in northeastern Ohio. There's Bill Ashcraft, a passionate, drug-abusing young activist whose flailing ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to post-BP New Orleans, and now back home with a mysterious package strapped to the undercarriage of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting her family and the mother of her best friend and first love, whose disappearance spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he's tried desperately to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the washed-up captain of the football team triggers the novel's shocking climax. Set over the course of a single evening, Ohio toggles between the perspectives of these unforgettable characters as they unearth dark secrets, revisit old regrets and uncover--and compound--bitter betrayals. Before the evening is through, these narratives converge masterfully to reveal a mystery so dark and shocking it will take your breath away.

Author Biography

Stephen Markley is the acclaimed author of Ohio, which NPR called a "masterpiece." A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Markley's other books include the memoir Publish This Book and the travelogue Tales of Iceland.