Bloomland, John Englehardt
Bloomland, John Englehardt
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Bloomland

Author: John Englehardt

Narrator: Charlie Thurston

Unabridged: 6 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/10/2019


Synopsis

Winner of the Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

Bloomland opens during finals week at a fictional southern university, when a student walks into the library with his roommate's semi-automatic rifle and opens fire. When he stops shooting, twelve people are dead.

In this richly textured debut, John Englehardt explores how the origin and aftermath of the shooting impacts the lives of three characters: a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and a young man whose valuation of fear and disconnection funnels him into the role of the aggressor. As the community wrestles with the fallout, Bloomland interrogates social and cultural dysfunction in a nation where mass violence has become all too familiar.

Profound and deeply nuanced, Bloomland is a dazzling debut for fans of Denis Johnson and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

About John Englehardt

John Englehardt won the Dzanc Books Prize in Fiction. His work has appeared in Vol.1 Brooklyn, Sycamore Review, the Stranger, Seattle Review of Books, Conium Review, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas, and currently teaches writing classes at Hugo House in Seattle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tammy

Being told by an onlooker (2nd person POV) furnishes immediacy to this narrative which I think it would otherwise lack. This is a timely novel that scrutinizes a fatal shooting at a university library during finals week. The account of what motivates the shooter to commit his bloody act is no less a......more

Goodreads review by Mary

In this debut novel, “Bloomland”, by John Englehardt, a college campus shooting is the main action/reaction, but it is the masterfully rendered characters that really propel this beautifully written, unforgettable novel. Two things especially stand out about this work. The first is the unique narrati......more

Goodreads review by Jill

With more than 370 mass shootings in 2019 alone, it’s easy enough to get inured with the real and tragic consequences of our ridiculously gun-happy society. But Bloomland by John Englehardt breaks through. It opens during final week at Ozarka, a fictional Arkansas university, when a student walks in......more