Universal Harvester: A Novel

"Whether with his band The Mountain Goats or in his debut novel, Wolf In White Van, John Darnielle has always demonstrated a keen understanding and care for even the most flawed of his characters. Darnielle’s follow-up novel Universal Harvester continues this mindset by capturing the claustrophobic intimacy of a declining American town in the mid-1990s with knowing nuance. When a video store clerk – an admitted underachiever caring for his father and stuck in bored workaday stasis after his mother’s death – comes across inexplicable found footage on VHS tapes, he grows invested in a mystery that uncovers long-dormant secrets about the town’s history. Blending small-town life with disquieting gothic horror, Universal Harvester is told with a matter-of-fact wit and carefully crafted phrases as lyrical as his song."