Book

Late city : a novel / Robert Olen Butler.

Record details

ISBN: 9780802158826
ISBN: 080215882X
ISBN: 9780802158826 : HRD
ISBN: 080215882X : HRD
ISBN: 9780802158826
ISBN: 080215882X
Physical Description: 290 pages ; 24 cm
Edition: First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021.
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

Summary, etc.:

"A...novel centered around former newspaperman Sam Cunningham as he prepares to die, Late City covers much of the early twentieth century, unfurling as a conversation between the dying man and a surprising God. As the two review Sam's life, from his childhood in the American South and his time in the French trenches during World War I to a newspaper career in Chicago in the Roaring Twenties and the decades that follow, moments of history are brought sharply into focus. Sam grows up in Louisiana with a harsh father and escapes by enlisting in the army as a sniper. The hardness his father instilled in him helps him make it out of World War I alive, but we come to realize that it also prevents him from contending with the emotional wounds of war. Back in the U.S., Sam moves to Chicago and begins a career as a newspaperman, meets his wife, and has a son, whose fate counters Sam's at almost every turn. As he contemplates his relationships--with his parents, his brothers in arms, his wife, his editor, and most importantly, his son--Sam is amazed at what he still has left to learn about himself after all these years"--Provided by publisher.