"You wouldn’t want to get lost in Tom Drury’s Midwest . . . Since his tremendous 1994 debut, The End of Vandalism, Drury has retreated further and further into the shadows of this region—leaving behind cozy eccentrics and the slightly folksy irony that might encourage you to think all will turn out well in the end. The latest way station in this fascinating artistic evolution is The Driftless Area, a fast, mean, beautiful little book about a man and a woman who become linked through a cycle of revenge."—John Freeman