I first became a fan of Ruff when I read his second novel, Sewer, Gas and Electric, in 1997. Until he meets a woman, Penny, whom he realises needs help perhaps only he can provide – but at a huge cost to himself.

Outwardly, this all allows him to live a normal life. There’s a mansion (essentially a giant flatshare), a lawn, a forest and a lake with a mysterious fog-shrouded island, on to which Andrew and his fellow souls have banished a particularly unpleasant personality. With the help of a therapist, he has constructed a virtual landscape inside his head to contain these personalities. Andrew’s traumatic past has “torn apart” his soul, leaving dozens of different personalities, each with a different name, fighting for possession of his body (only one can be in control at any given time). ‘At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-twentieth-century horror and sci-fi cliches against the banal and ever present bigotry of the era’ - New York Times Book Review. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his - and the whole Turner clan’s - destruction. Braithwhite - heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors - they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.Īt the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn - led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb - which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. When his father Montrose goes missing, twenty-two year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George - publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide - and his childhood friend Letitia. Abrams, Misha Green and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out ).Ī blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism - the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.Ĭhicago, 1954.

The New York Times bestselling book behind the HBO Series from J.J.

Ruff matt