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Start giftingThe End of Vandalism
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Learn moreTen years ago, Tom Drury's groundbreaking debut, The End of Vandalism, was serialized in the New Yorker, was compared to the work of Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner by USA Today, and was named a Best Book of the Year in multiple publications.
Welcome to Grouse County—a fictional Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric—where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars. At the heart of The End of Vandalism is an unforgettable love triangle set off by a crime: Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an antivandalism dance and then marries the culprit's ex-wife Louise. So Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self, and the three find themselves on an epic journey. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, The End of Vandalism is a radiant novel about the beauty and ache of modern life.
Tom Drury is the author of several novels, including The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, The Driftless Area, and The Black Brook. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and the Mississippi Review, and he has been named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists.
Jesse LaVercombe is a Toronto-based actor and writer originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Acting credits include productions at Tarragon Theatre, Marigny Opera House (New Orleans), PuSh, SummerWorks, Caravan Stage Company; TV: American Gods, The Detail, Salvation, Mayday; Feature Films: Flowers in the Field, Mary Goes Round, The Telephone Game, In Clamatore. His first play, Preacher Man, won the United Solo Festival’s “Best Short Solo Award" in NYC, and Love Me Forever Billy H. Tender played in Toronto, Kingston, and NYC, where it received praise from The New York Times, Stage Buddy, NY Theatre Guide, and more. His latest short film has so far played over thirty festivals (including SXSW, Slamdance, and BFI Flare: London) and taken home six awards. He was recently commissioned to write a new musical, and his upcoming adaptation of The Epic of Gilgamesh with Seth Bockley and Ahmed Moneka will be workshopped at The Guthrie and premiere in 2019 at the Pivot Arts Festival in Chicago.
Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been narrating since 1996 and has recorded over six hundred audiobooks. He is a seven-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award and has twice been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His critically acclaimed performances include Elvis in the Morning by William F. Buckley Jr. and Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin, among others.
Reviews
“Brilliant, wonderfully funny…This is indeed deadpan humor, and Tom Drury is its master.”
“Drury’s prose is gorgeously descriptive.”
“Miraculous…reads like life itself.”
“The End of Vandalism is a remarkably funny book without being in the least frivolous.”
“A screamingly funny book.”
“[Drury’s] sense of place and his eye for the particular in the mundane are extraordinary. This is a quiet book that grows in emotional resonance.”
“Drury strikes gold…This startling, affecting, and funny debut…contributes to the American literary tradition of arch renditions of midwestern rural life.”
“Affectionately chronicles the mundane but elevates it to a richly comic plane.”
“A poker-faced look at American folkways in a world that is precarious and perverse…There’s an awful lot to like here: the dialogue, the sly humor, the feather-light touch, the clean drive of the prose.”
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