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Name of Book: Fourth of July Creek
Author: Smith Henderson
Publisher: Random House/William Heinemann

What our judges said:

A powerful evocation of the rural America time has forgotten and the casualties it trails in its wake. Set in Western Montana, it follows the travails of a social worker called in when a young boy is found wandering and he has to confront his disenfranchised parents. Both harrowing and life enhancing, a towering achievement and insight into a world many of us would rather ignore.

From the book:

After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy’s profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete’s own family spins out of control, Jeremiah’s activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the centre of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. In this shattering and iconic novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting America’s disquieting and violent contradictions. FOURTH OF JULY CREEK is an unforgettable, unflinching debut that marks the arrival of a major literary talent.