COMING IN APRIL, THE DEBUT NOVEL FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME...
New York City, 2010: A bomb goes off in a Manhattan office tower, and foreign terrorists are immediately suspected. But four days later, with no arrests and a city still on edge, Aidan Cole, a failed New York journalist-turned-gossip blogger, opens an anonymous email to find a photograph of a young American woman, along with a chilling message: This is Paige Roderick. She’s the one responsible…
So begins a journey, at once classic and contemporary, into the dark soul of America—from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to a bomb factory in Vermont, from a wealthy enclave on Fishers Island to the hip lofts of Brooklyn. A sharp and penetrating commentary on recent U.S. history, AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE explores the connection between our collective apathy and the roots of insurrection. It is a story--a love story, really--about two Americans grasping for a foothold in a culture, and a country, that’s slowly crumbling around them.
Beautifully written, relentlessly suspenseful, and bitingly funny, AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE is an unnervingly realistic tale of domestic terrorism and a perfectly observed portrait of Manhattan in the dawn of the digital age.
- "Goodwillie's American Subversive reads like the unholy spawn of Tom Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It has all the white-knuckle pleasures of the political thriller--combined with a thoroughly postmodern love story. He has an insider's feel for New York's too-knowing new-media culture, and a writer's eye for its emptiness."
-- David Gates, author of Jernigan - "A new voice has entered the city--youthful, wise, and with an enthralling story to tell. Goodwillie's rendering of an American woman seduced by radicalism skillfully examines the enduring themes of our lives: politics, media, loyalty and love."
-- Gay Talese, author of A Writer's Life - "David Goodwillie is an exceptional and fine young talent. He can write. In American Subversive you will find him witty and ironic, funny, fast and sharp."
-- Alan Furst, author of The Spies of Warsaw - "American Subersive is a searing portrait of failed idealism and social unrest. Brilliantly plotted and compulsively readable, Goodwillie's debut novel asks one to reexamine the nature of political action and private life. Unforgettable."
-- Danielle Trussoni, author of Angelology - David Goodwille's writing is explosive, engaging and captivating. American Subversive will jolt you out of your seat. After reading this powerful thriller you'll be looking over your shoulder, and down forested lanes, worried what's out there.
-- Ridley Pearson, author of Killer Summer
David Goodwillie is the author of the novel AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE (Scribner, April 2010), and the memoir SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME (Algonquin), for which he was named one of the “Best New Writers of 2006” by a PEN American Center forum. He has written for national magazines, newspapers and websites including New York, Men’s Health, Black Book, The New York Post, The Newark Star-ledger, The Rumpus and Deadspin. He has also played professional baseball, worked as a private investigator, and been an expert at Sotheby's auction house. A graduate of Kenyon College, he lives and works in New York City.
