War Against the Animals: A Novel

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St. Martin's Publishing Group, Sep 6, 2004 - Fiction - 320 pages

From the author of the acclaimed Boys of Life and the award-wining The Coming Storm comes a novel about a small town in upstate New York riven by tensions between the old residents and the newcomers.

Cameron Barnes, formerly of New York City, lives in a small town in upstate New York. He's regained a measure of his health after nearly dying, but his long-term lover has moved away and he now faces the daunting prospect of relearning how to live with the prospect of a future alone. As a tentative step, Cameron hires two local young men, brothers Kyle and Jesse Vanderhof, to do some renovation work on his property.

With the area's depressed economy, the town's changing population, and recent deaths in the family, the Vanderhofs are facing hard times and tough decisions. The older brother, Kyle, sees an opportunity in Cameron, pushing Jesse to befriend him and take advantage of his boredom and directionlessness. Caught between the opposing worlds embodied by Cameron and Kyle, Jesse is torn by his brother's demands, community and family expectations, and his own mix of volatile, contradictory emotions. Mirroring the town's own increasingly tense split between long-term residents and new arrivals, this trio moves inexorably towards crisis and potential tragedy that will transform each of their lives.

Widely praised for his deft prose and brilliant characterizations, Paul Russell has become regarded as one of the finest contemporary American novelists. Now, with War Against the Animals, he returns with his richest, most accomplished, and most compelling novel yet.

 

Contents

Part One
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
TwentyOne
Part Three
TwentyTwo
TwentyThree
TwentyFour

Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Part Two
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
TwentyFive
TwentySix
TwentySeven
TwentyEight
TwentyNine
Part Four
Thirty
Also by Paul Russell
Acknowledgments
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Paul Russell is the author of five novels - including The Coming Storm and Sea of Tranquillity - as well as The Gay 100, a work of non-fiction. His most recent novel was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award as well as the winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award. He is a professor at Vassar College and lives in upstate New York.

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