American Rust - Brossura

'American Rust is so timely that it makes painful as well as enjoyable reading. The novel is a paean to the end of empire...Mr Meyer's voice is assured, and the story crackles with narrative tension. He develops his characters with impressive psychological and sociological insight, observing astutely that "there was something particularly American" about "blaming yourself for bad luck - that resistance to seeing your life as affected by social forces, a tendency to attribute larger problems to individual behaviour." Meyer himself sees these larger forces all too clearly, and it is his portrayal of America's devastated industrial base that is likely to get this novel much attention: "You could not have a country, not this big, that didn't make things for itself. There would be ramifications eventually." The author delineates the inexorable welfare dependency, petty crime and drug and alcohol abuse that follow when the infrastructure of steady employment implodes. The picture is firm, but masterfully painted' (The Economist)

'Meyer has fused a molten story set among the defunct steel mills and deer-filled woods of a small Pennsylvania town... The entropic nature of a society in paralysis is stunningly portrayed in a novel rich in scope and ambition' (The Guardian)

Philipp Meyer grew up in Baltimore, dropped out of high school and attended Cornell, where he studied English. Since graduating, Meyer has worked as a derivatives trader and a construction worker. His writing has been published in McSweeney's, The Iowa Review, Salon, and New Stories from the South. From 2005-2008 Meyer was a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. He lives near Ithaca in New York State.