The Best People in the World : A Novel

The Best People in the World
Author(s): Justin Tussing

In Paducah, Kentucky, seventeen-year-old Thomas feels as reined in as the mighty Ohio, a river confined by high floodwalls protecting his small Southern hometown. But all boundaries vanish when Thomas experiences first love with Alice, his new history teacher, a woman eight years his senior—and when he meets Shiloh, a misfit vagabond and anarchist who becomes his new role model. Fleeing to rural Vermont, this unlikely trio boldly pursues freedom, intimacy, and seclusion, unfettered by commitments and rules. But a life apart from the world does not ensure a life apart from the past—and for one of them, the past that emerges will threaten tragedy.

Review(s):
“An engrossing tale . . . The novel ultimately succeeds because of the original voice of the narrator.”
“Tussing is a fine writer with a flair for imagery, and he’s crafted a melancholy, resonant story.”
“Inventive . . . Eloquent in capturing what it’s like to be alien in your own hometown.
“Bleakly beautiful... Tussing skillfully crafts simultaneously visionary and demented characters... [An] odd but honest, appealing American story.”
“A fresh, original voice . . . Tussing fashions a sophisticated exploration of the allure of love.”
“One bright book of exuberant American life . . . Tussing has a real gift.”
“It is very rare to find a novel so lovingly, deliberately and perfectly written . . . Read it. Now.”
“A significant literary feat... Announces the arrival of a talented young voice on the contemporary fiction scene.”
“This novel is rich in character, and it offers scene after scene of crackling, revelatory dialogue among lovers and friends.”
“[A] lovely novel . . . Tussing is a witty, affecting writer.”



ISBN:  9780060815356