Kornwolf

Tristan Egolf's new novel is a book about the return of an old curse -- the Kornwolf, a ferocious werewolf whose nocturnal rampaging becomes increasingly impossible to ignore. Kornwolf takes the reader for a good old-fashioned romp in the stubble -- a journey through the slums and honky tundra of rural Pennsylvania, where nothing quite passes for good or bad, sublime or dismal, discrete or brash. And then the monotony breaks. Something -- a freak of creation -- is running amok in the fields. To solve the mystery, three generations of prodigal sons -- a writer and hometown boy who swore he'd never come back to Penn's Woods; a middle-aged former pugilist who runs a decrepit boxing gym; and a misfit, mute, beaten-down Amish boy -- are brought together by the light of a blue moon, in a town called Blue Ball. On one level this is a masterfully orchestrated, hilarious, and compelling take on the classic horror yarn, on another, Kornwolf is a social satire of suburban sprawl, closed minds, and all manners and varieties of self-satisfaction -- Amish, civilian, or... other -- in the best tradition of Tom Robbins and George Saunders.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Published: 11/29/2005
ISBN: 9780802170163
Pages: 378
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.52w x 1.04d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/15/2005 pg. 48
Publishers Weekly 10/17/2005 pg. 41
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2005 pg. 1100
Booklist 01/01/2006 pg. 73
New Yorker (The) 02/27/2006 pg. 83