Lovecraft Country

by Matt Ruff

Overview

Now an HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out)

The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds 1950s historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the cosmic horror tales George devours.

At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret society named the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb—which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan’s—destruction.

A chimerical blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism—the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062292070
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/14/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Matt Ruff is the author of Lovecraft Country and its sequel, The Destroyer of Worlds, as well as 88 Names, Bad Monkeys, The Mirage, Set This House in Order, Fool on the Hill, and Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

"This newer book rewards patience, and nowhere more so than in the passages where it heartbreakingly weaves Hippolyta into the actual events that surrounded Pluto’s discovery and naming. Once Ruff took me there, I would’ve followed him anywhere in Lovecraft Country.

Seattle Review of Books

Nonstop adventure that includes time-shifting, shape-shifting, and Lovecraft-like horrors ... Ruff, a cult favorite for his mind-bending fiction, vividly portrays racism as a horror worse than anything conceived by Lovecraft in this provocative, chimerical novel

Booklist (starred review)

At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-20th-century horror and sci-fi clichés against the banal and ever-present bigotry of the era. And at every turn, it is the bigotry that hums with the greater evil.

The New York Times Book Review - Manuel Gonzales

“Lovecraft Country doesn’t just race along, it tears, demanding that you keep turning its pages without interruption.” - Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother
“The slippery dialogue and suspense-soaked prose make Lovecraft Country—a challenge to one of the most recognizable legacies in science fiction—worth every dime.” - Chicago Review of Books
“Lovecraft Country is a genre-bending attempt to address the serious problem of race in modern America, skewering the prejudices of older pulp works while maintaining their flavor, but it’s also a compulsively readable horror-fantasy in its own right: timely, terrifying, and hilarious.” - Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-20th-century horror and sci-fi cliches against the banal and ever-present bigotry of the era. And at every turn, it is the bigotry that hums with the greater evil.” - New York Times Book Review
“Ruff has created a story that’s as compelling as it is exciting - and the result is definitely one of the most important books of 2016.” - Charlie Jane Anders, author of the bestselling All the Birds in the Sky, writing for io9
“Lovecraft Country is bound to appeal to any reader who wants to delve into the strangeness of our land’s racial legacy.” - Seattle Times
"This newer book rewards patience, and nowhere more so than in the passages where it heartbreakingly weaves Hippolyta into the actual events that surrounded Pluto’s discovery and naming. Once Ruff took me there, I would’ve followed him anywhere in Lovecraft Country.” - Seattle Review of Books
“Ruff is sure to retain his cult following and certainly gain a wider audience with the thoughtful, fast-paced Lovecraft Country. Perhaps his greatest victory is giving his characters the space to live and breathe, even when their environment seeks to constrict them. The slippery dialogue and suspense-soaked prose make Lovecraft Country—a challenge to one of the most recognizable legacies in science fiction—worth every dime.” - Chicago Review of Books
“Nonstop adventure that includes time-shifting, shape-shifting, and Lovecraft-like horrors ... Ruff, a cult favorite for his mind-bending fiction, vividly portrays racism as a horror worse than anything conceived by Lovecraft in this provocative, chimerical novel” - Booklist (starred review)
“[The] characters are some of the most fully realized and human I’ve ever encountered, neither idealized nor stereotyped. . . . It might be my favorite Matt Ruff novel, and that’s saying something.” - Locus
“Lovecraft Country rubs the pervasive, eldritch dread of Lovecraft’s universe against the very real, historical dread of Jim Crow America and sparks fly. . . . Ruff renders a very high-concept, imaginary world with such vividness that you can’t help but feel it’s disturbingly real.” - Christopher Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Lamb and A Dirty Job
“Come for the mix of historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror. Stay for the fun of it.” - Kirkus Reviews
“Genuinely spooky... But the real horror is the reality of life for African-Americans in the Jim Crow era... sparks the imagination while also igniting the reader’s empathy.” - Library Journal
“Another ‘only Matt Ruff could do this’ production. Lovecraft Country takes the unlikeliest of premises and spins it into a funny, fast, exciting and affecting read.” - Neal Stephenson, New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves and Anathem

From the Publisher