Painting the Walls - A Novel

It is 2027. August Helm is thirty years old. A biochemist working in a lab at the University of Chicago, he is swept off his feet by the beautiful and entirely self-assured Amanda Clark. Animated by August's consuming desire, their relationship quickly becomes intimate. But when he stumbles across a liaison between the director of his lab and a much younger student, his position is eliminated and his world upended. August sets out to visit his parents in Words, an unincorporated village in the heart of Wisconsin's Driftless Area. Here, he reconnects with several characters from his past: Ivan Bookchester, who now advocates for "new ways of living" in an age of decline; Hanh, formerly known as Jewelweed, who tends her orchard and wild ginseng, keenly attuned to new patterns of migration resulting from climate change and habitat destruction; and Lester Mortal, the aging veteran and fierce pacifist who long ago rescued her from Vietnam. Together, the old friends fall back into a familiar closeness. But much as things initially seem unchanged in the Driftless, when August is hired to look after Tom and April Lux's home in Forest Gate, he finds himself in the midst of an entirely different social set, made up of wealthy homeowners who are mostly resented by the poorer surrounding communities, and distanced in turn by their fear of the locals. August soon falls head over heels for April, and different versions of his self collide: one in which the past is still present in tensions and dreams, another in which he understands his desire as genetically determined and chemically induced, and then a vaguely hoped-for future with April. When Lester is diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, Ivan comes clean on a ghastly past episode, and April makes a shocking revelation, a series of events ensues that will change all involved forever.   As approachable as it is profound in exploring the human condition and our shared need for community, this is a story for our times.

List of contents

Orientation                                          

Familiarity                       

Trouble                                      

Going Back                                

Remembering                                            

Jet Lag                                                 

The Saws                                   

Working Wood                        

The Glass Eye                           

The Home Place                      

Going In                                              

Settling In                        

The Flat Worm                        

Dogs Play                                  

Shampoo                                   

Insects                                        

Whittling                                   

Car Jacking                                

Player Piano                             

Divine Madness                       

Visitors                             

Violated                                     

Hot Biscuits                              

Femicide                                    

Snow                                          

Links and Linkage                  

Living Bookends                     

The Service                               

Gene Circling                            

We Grew Up Together           

Climax                                                 

Epilogue                                             

Acknowledgements                        

 

About the author

David Rhodes is the author of Painting Beyond Walls. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him paraplegic. He continued writing, but did not publish again until 2008, with his celebrated novel, Driftless. Several years later, a sequel, Jewelweed, was published to wide acclaim. After another decade, he returns to American letters with this extraordinary novel, his first to be set in the future. David Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in Iowa City.

Summary

As a young man, David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him partially paralyzed. In 2008, Rhodes returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel that was hailed as "the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years" (Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune). A Guggenheim Fellow, Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in Wisconsin.

Foreword

• Major galley campaign, with galleys available for the sales force, major media, fiction media, regional media (Midwest), influential authors, booksellers, and librarians; digital galleys available for download on Edelweiss
  

• Major media outreach, positioning this a the long-awaited release from a celebrated author whose work explores the human condition
  

• Major Indie Next campaign, with bookseller outreach focused on stores in the Midwest, with a special push to stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois
  

• Cover reveal and preorder newsletter campaign in collaboration with Wisconsin-based bookstore
  

• Newsletter promotion via the publisher to readers, sales and academic lists of more than 30K contacts
  

• Advertising in Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, and MIBA
  

• Goodreads giveaway
  

• Reader’s Guide available for download
  

Product details

Authors	David Rhodes, Rhodes David
Publisher	Ingram Publishers Services
Languages	English
Product format	Hardback
Released	13.09.2022
EAN	9781571311412
ISBN	978-1-57131-141-2
No. of pages	384
Illustrations	Illustrationen, nicht spezifiziert
Subjects	Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / Psychological, FICTION / Small Town & Rural, FICTION / Science Fiction / Genetic Engineering, fiction;novel;Midwest;Wisconsin, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Science fiction: near future

Product details

• Authors: David Rhodes, Rhodes David
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.09.2022
• EAN: 9781571311412
• ISBN: 978-1-57131-141-2
• No. of pages: 384
• Illustrations: Illustrationen, nicht spezifiziert
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / Psychological, FICTION / Small Town & Rural, FICTION / Science Fiction / Genetic Engineering, fiction;novel;Midwest;Wisconsin, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Science fiction: near future