So Far Gone - by Jess Walter (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"A warm, funny, loving novel. . . . It's an American original."--Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"So Far Gone is a marvel."--Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins--and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis' True Grit--comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid. At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons.

Now Kinnick's old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he'd left behind. So Far Gone is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called "a genius of the modern American moment" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Review Quotes

A Vogue and Amazon "Best Book of the Year" * A Publishers Weekly and Washington Post "Most Anticipated" * An Oprah's Book Club, LA Times, New York Times, CBS Sunday, Lit Hub, Chicago Tribune, and Minnesota Star Tribune "Must Read Book for Summer" * An Alta Magazine "Book of the Month" * A New York Times "New Book We Recommend" * A Lit Hub "Best Reviewed Book" --

"So Far Gone is a marvel--a taut literary thriller that is also a moving, deeply humane exploration of the way one family falls apart and puts itself back together in a moment of crisis. Jess Walter is a prodigiously talented novelist, a writer willing to confront some of the most important and divisive issues of our time without losing his nerve or his sense of humor. " -- Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers

"Jess Walter is beloved for being a prose wizard with a sparkling, infectious sense of humor and a huge heart. He makes readers love his characters even when they don't find themselves particularly loveable. So Far Gone speaks directly into the profoundly troubled soul of our fractured, embittered country; miraculously, it does so with gentle wryness and angry love. What a rollicking good time." -- Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author of Matrix

"I loved this book, and marveled how Jess Walter managed to build such a warm, funny, loving novel out of so many horrible parts. It's an American original." -- Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"A tumultuous road trip through a tumultuous America."
-- Washington Post, Books to Watch for in 2025

"Sublime and searing" -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"(So Far Gone) made for some great art" -- Associated Press

"Who better to give us the latest version of a recluse with a heart of gold than Walter?... It's a gleeful, kooky and tender homage to Charles Portis' "True Grit" with echoes of Tom Robbins and yes, Elinor Lipman too." -- Los Angeles Times

"Like Station Eleven and The Handmaid's Tale, this novel by Walter (The Angels of Rome and Other Stories) feels both prescient and timely yet with a backward glance....Gritty survivalist stories, from bunkers to bar rooms, converge in this propulsive novel that glances backward to 2016 while signaling what dangers come to fruition when people relinquish human bonds in favor of ideological fervor....This work is a tremendous achievement... with an urgency that may make it one of the strongest realist but dystopian novels of the present era." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"Propulsive...Walter serves up a rollicking and heartrending adventure about a broken man determined to set things right in an increasingly divided America....Walter offers an honest and even touching look at the [characters'] need for purpose while finding deadpan humor in their failings....This captivates." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The characters are created with loving care, the plot with reckless glee; Walter seems as fed up with various aspects of modern life as the smartphone-hating Rhys, and gives his version of the modern Northwest a distinctly Old West vibrational overlay....Walter is a beacon of wit, decency, and style." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Against this backdrop Jess Walter's buoyant, witty caper So Far Gone . . . Walter's affinity for his quirky cast shines through in their banter. Amid a spike in white nationalism, as our country reels from threats within, Walter seeks deeper bonds of affection, a holistic vision of We the People, even if it's a mirage." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Rhythmically snarky and surprisingly tender, So Far Gone will claim a spot near the Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning Citizen Vince in Walter's impressive canon." -- Seattle Times

"[Walter] writes like a sly angel...Enjoy the ride in this sweet, sharp book." -- Air Mail, "Best Read of the Week"

"Walter is not one for settling too long in a single style. The Washington state native has dabbled in mysteries, thrillers, domestic dramas and historical epics, often working in a variety of modes and genres at any given time. Still, for all these protean leaps, his sense of humor -- a knack for finding the absurd clad in mundane clothing - tends to give him away." -- NPR

"There is both hurt and healing in So Far Gone in its depiction of both a society that can seem so far gone down the wrong road and people who want to do the right thing." -- Daily Kos

"Jess Walter's 'So Far Gone' is so far, soooo good....A compelling tale of a broken America and the struggles of the everyday few to try and bring back some semblance of being united... This is a romp in the style of the best of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, ....a noir style thriller that follows the conflict lived by every family that has gathered for Thanksgiving after 2015." -- The Spokesman-Review

"Hilarious....The always underrated Jess Walter sculpts an indelible outcast....As a summer read, it's an escape, and a sharp stick in the eye." -- Chicago Tribune

"There are approximately 1 million different ways in which a novel about the past ten years in America could devolve into a parade of familiar miseries, but So Far Gone sidesteps those pitfalls by being consistently funny." -- Vulture

"Balancing on the narrow path between comic observation and dark realism isn't easy, but the Beautiful Ruins author navigates the journey with blistering humor and an insider's eye." -- The Minnesota Star Tribune