American Rust

15 hrs. 32 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Philipp Meyer

Narrator Alexey Bagdasarov

Description

A novel about a lost American dream and modern despair, about friendship and loyalty, about love that grows out of the rubble of a destroyed life. Philip Meyer unfolds his story against the poignant-beautiful landscapes of Pennsylvania, in which the rusting remains of the former industrial might are embedded. Isaac—considered a wunderkind at school—gets stuck in his hometown because of his disabled father. His friend Poe, an athlete with a big sporting future, also isn’t in a hurry to leave. It’s as if rust is corroding everything they know: it has swallowed the former steel mills, the city itself, and the surrounding farms. Wild and beautiful nature, step by step, takes back the world that a person built for himself. The friends still believe they will break out of the world of rusting plants and abandoned houses—to where real life happens. But a fateful incident explodes the depressive, sleepy elegy in which the heroes live, and Isaac and Poe will have to go through an incredible test of endurance, devotion, and nobility.

“American Rust” is a saga of modern America written in an “epochal” style; Philip Meyer’s book calls to mind novels by Faulkner and Steinbeck. It’s a story about insecurity—in oneself and in the country, about a grim reality that can only be overcome on a very personal level.