Ill Will
A Novel
Published on 7. March 2017
480 pages
978-1-101-88534-5 (ISBN)
Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two sensational unsolved crimes-one in the past, another in the present-are linked by one man's memory and self-deception in this "haunting [and] strikingly original" (The New York Times Book Review) novel of literary suspense from National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon.
"Ingenious . . . [Ill Will] walks along a garrote stretched taut between Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock."-The Washington Post
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly
"We are always telling a story to ourselves, about ourselves." This is one of the little mantras Dustin Tillman likes to share with his patients, and it's meant to be reassuring. But what if that story is a lie?
A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin's parents, aunt, and uncle. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning.
Meanwhile, one of Dustin's patients has been plying him with stories of the drowning deaths of a string of drunk college boys. At first Dustin dismisses the talk of a serial killer as paranoid thinking, but as the two embark on an amateur investigation, Dustin starts to believe that there's more to the deaths than coincidence. Soon he becomes obsessed, crossing all professional boundaries-and putting his own family in harm's way.
Includes an exclusive conversation between Dan Chaon and Lynda Barry
"Ingenious . . . [Ill Will] walks along a garrote stretched taut between Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock."-The Washington Post
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly
"We are always telling a story to ourselves, about ourselves." This is one of the little mantras Dustin Tillman likes to share with his patients, and it's meant to be reassuring. But what if that story is a lie?
A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin's parents, aunt, and uncle. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning.
Meanwhile, one of Dustin's patients has been plying him with stories of the drowning deaths of a string of drunk college boys. At first Dustin dismisses the talk of a serial killer as paranoid thinking, but as the two embark on an amateur investigation, Dustin starts to believe that there's more to the deaths than coincidence. Soon he becomes obsessed, crossing all professional boundaries-and putting his own family in harm's way.
Includes an exclusive conversation between Dan Chaon and Lynda Barry
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Dan Chaon is the acclaimed author of Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; You Remind Me of Me, which was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications; Await Your Reply, which was a New York Times Notable Book and appeared on more than a dozen best-of-the-year lists; and Stay Awake. Chaon has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of the 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and teaches at Oberlin College, where he is the Pauline M. Delaney Professor of Creative Writing.
