While the Getting Is Good - by Matt Riordan (Hardcover)

About the Book

"When a simple Lake Huron fisherman starts running whiskey for bootleggers, the Prohibition-era promise of easy money reveals its dark underbelly. As his wife and mistress together flee the violence he brought to their doorsteps, a found family is formed--and then splintered in brutal and unexpected ways"--

Book Synopsis

Amid the gangland wars of Prohibition, one fisherman's long-shot play to secure his family's future brings disaster to everyone he loves.

Based partly on family lore, Matt Riordan's follow-up to The North Line is for readers of Jeannette Wall's Hang the Moon and S.A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed.

Eld should've known better. Hell, he did know better. But watching lesser men hit big paydays--men who didn't fight in Europe--grew unbearable. So, when the opportunity arises, he reaches for a little something extra for his family, and even more for himself. With Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to rumrunner was supposed to be temporary. It seemed the perfect plan. Even Maggie, Eld's normally sensible wife, is on board.

Things don't go to plan. Amid the region's players battle to capture the biggest piece of a shrinking pie, Eld's tiny family operation is caught in the crossfire. One bitterly cold night packing whiskey across Lake Huron costs Eld dearly, and his family even more.

Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered: Eld to Canada on a doomed quest, Maggie and her daughter forced into finding sanctuary in a faith more cult than religion. When they finally reunite, they may not even recognize each other as the same people who crossed their fingers and threw the dice for a shot at a better life.

Review Quotes

"A modern day tragedy so believable that I asked the author, Matt Riordan, if it had been based upon a family history [...] his prose style [conveys] a sense of lives caught up in the Great Depression."
--The Historical Novel Society

Praise for Matt Riordan's debut THE NORTH LINE:

"[A]n irresistible portrait of commercial fishermen fighting for survival in the early 1990s Alaska. [...] The novel's colorful dialogue and relentless pacing evoke the uncompromising headwinds in [the main character's] path. This is a triumph of gritty realism. "
--Publishers Weekly (Starred)

"[I]n an atmosphere worthy of a Jack London rock'n'roll, Matt Riordan has written a ruthless coming-of-age novel that leaves you breathless."
--Rolling Stone [France]

"Riordan is a superb storyteller, and The North Line is an all-engrossing, never-dull depiction of Alaska's 'wild west' and those drawn to it. Sentence by sentence, Riordan's dazzling language will transport readers into a world both challenging and packed with beauty and possibility."
--Anchorage Daily News

"Riordan writes about both labor and the natural world with an equally keen eye, bringing out the inner torment of a complex character coming to terms with his place in the world."
--CrimeReads, a Best Debut pick

"The North Line is a ruggedly erudite story that combines the best of the individualism of Jack London with the introspective ruminations of Raymond Carver . . . not to be missed."
--S.A. Cosby New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed

"A frightening story of tough men pushed to the brink. The novel is captivating, occasionally funny, and startling. I couldn't put it down."
--David Sedaris

"This coming-of- age novel relates the story of a young man among old sea wolves. It is said that man is a wolf to man. In the Bering Sea, man is like a shark."
--Ouest France

"The North Line is one of those rare books that you feel as much as read. The world and its details are so real, so intimate, and so lived-in and that I had to check my fingertips for fish scales once I finished reading."
--Craig Davidson, author of Rust and Bone

"Riordan is summoning demons in this grimy wilderness saga that might hit entirely too close to home for those who know. Magnificent."
--Laird Barron, author of The Wind Began to Howl

"A rough, virile, and exciting novel."
--Tribune de Genève

"A novel that smells of the sea, of mustiness and fuel oil.... A dirty, dark, immersive novel."
--Voile Magazine

About the Author

Matt Riordan grew up in Michigan but spent his early twenties working on commercial fishing boats in Alaska. After college, Matt drifted from commercial fishing through a variety of jobs before landing in law school. He then became a litigator in New York City, where he practiced for twenty years. He now lives with his family in Australia.