The Lost Country

By: William Gay

Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith

Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The Lost Country centers on Edgewater, who's recently been discharged from the navy, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish who takes him under his wing as they both search desperately for a forgotten past and a future that may never come. The Lost Country cements Gay as one of the strongest voices in Southern literature, alongside Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner.

©2018 William Gay (P)2018 Recorded Books

Perfect southern gothic novel

one of the best American novels I've read. it has some structural problems due to the fact it was composed from notes and manuscripts left by author in the wake of his death in 2012 (sometimes characters simply drop out of the story to reappear much later or to be replaced by different characters with the same characteristics; original purpose of Edgewater's journey becomes all but forgotten) , but the writing is so beautiful and the atmosphere is so dense that I can't help but recommend this book.
if you like William Faulkner, Taylor Sheridan, Nic Pizzolatto and Cormack McCarthy it is worth your time and money

Southern Gothic doesn't get much better

I think being raised in Mississippi and having spent half my life in Tennessee being a fan of Southern Gothic is as much a requirement alongside church on Sunday. Even still I absolutely loved this book.

It brought a grit and roughness to its characters that was palpable. Even the women were an unpolished version of their potential. There's not really anyone that is completely likable but most have qualities of decency. They just live in a place in a time that needs not for to be polished, or refined. But don't mistake me, they are not stupid. In far too many books the stereotype of a Southerner is dumb and racist. Gay doesn't hide the racism that was evident in that time, but not for one second does he treat his characters as ignorant.

He treats his characters with respect, even when they are undeserving. That's what makes this book so great.

If you like poetic and gritty Southern Gothic-

William Gay's grim menagerie of the Southern Gothic, finished shortly before his death, has finally been pieced together from manuscripts, and it's wonderful. He has channeled the desperation of Carson McCullers, the characterization of Flannery O'Connor, and the language of Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner. That may seem like hyperbole, but it's not. He was that good. Even fans of European Weird fiction could appreciate this 'purple' writing. The only reason this book doesn't rate higher is perhaps due to the posthumous editing, as it gets unfocused in its episodic nature, and some of its overuse of simile needed to be reined in. The man was a master of creating metaphor, but there needed to be restraint on a few occasions. Finally, I had felt in previous novels that Gay was trying too hard to imitate McCarthy and Faulkner, but this novel shows that Gay, in the twilight of his career, could distinctly equal them.
-T. Ryder Smith did a phenomenal job performing this book, and he took great care in breathing personalities and idiosyncrasies into every (forlorn) character.

Base story written with high-falutin’ words

Not much of a real story here, so the author tried to fill that void with a barrel full of multi-syllabic words that were likely plucked untimely from Roget’s Thesaurus.