Us Fools by Nora Lange

About the book:
"This novel is tender and exceptionally moving, but also mordantly funny in parts, and it’s a razor-sharp critique of American capitalism. And it’s written so beautifully that it’s hard to believe it’s a debut novel."
—Michael Schaub, NPR: Books We Love 2024

A tragicomic, intimate American story of two precocious sisters coming of age during the Midwestern farm crisis of the 1980s.

Joanne and Bernadette Fareown are raised on their family farm in rural Illinois, keenly affected by their parents’ volatile relationship and mounting financial debt, haunted by the cursed history of the women in their family. Largely left to their own devices, the sisters educate themselves on Greek mythology, feminism, and Virginia Woolf, realizing they must find unique ways to cope in these antagonistic conditions, questioning the American Dream as the rest of the country abandons their community in crisis.
As Jo and Bernie’s imaginative solutions for escape come up short against their parents’ realities, the family leaves their farm for Chicago, where Joanne—free-spirited, reckless, and unable to tame her inner violence—rebels in increasingly desperate ways. After her worst breakdown yet, Jo goes into exile in Deadhorse, Alaska, and it is up to Bernadette to use all she’s learned from her sister to revive a sense of hope against the backdrop of a failing world.
With her debut novel, Nora Lange has crafted a rambunctious, ambitious, and heart-rending portrait of two idiosyncratic sisters, determined to persevere despite the worst that capitalism and their circumstances has to throw at them.

* National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Finalist *

About the author:

Nora Lange’s novel Us Fools is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Nora’s writing has appeared in BOMB, Hazlitt, Joyland, American Short Fiction, Denver Quarterly, HTMLGIANT and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from Brown University and is a fellow at USC’s Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities. She recently moved to Salt Lake City with her family.

Nora will hold a conversation with Blake Butler.

Blake Butler is the author of twelve book-length works, recently including Molly, Void Corporation, and . His short fiction, interviews, reviews, and essays have appeared widely, including in The New York Times, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Fence, Bomb, Bookforum, and as an ongoing column at . In 2021, he was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. He is a founding editor of HTMLGIANT.

Accessibility note: This event is up two flights of stairs and Lost City Books does not have an elevator. Please contact [email protected] with questions.

Dato de accesibilidad: Este evento toma lugar en el segundo piso y Lost City Books no tiene ascensor. Favor de contactar [email protected] con cualquiera duda.

Event Venue

Lost City Books, 2467 18th Street Northwest, Washington, United States