Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award for the Region''s Best Books of 2015 (Adult Fiction)

Named a Booklist Editors'' Choice for 2015

Longlisted for the American Library Association''s 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

"Compelling and necessary....[Meno] has a knack for giving small happenings emotional weight....Meno knows how to make you love his characters, want what they want. But don''t think he''s going to let things turn out well for them. Marvels and wonders aren''t worth the trouble. Fortunately, this book is."
-- New York Times Book Review

"[A] rugged page-turner....There''s a bit of the country noir of Daniel Woodrell''s Winter''s Bone in the stark atmosphere Mr. Meno evokes ( A faded town, fading, harried with dusty light, midafternoon ), and a bit of the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino in the story of the vigilante grandfather. But the writing is propulsive enough to make you forget its influences. And at moments the book''s consuming darkness is lifted by potent, if inscrutable visions of the talismanic horse-- a flash of lightning curving along the horizon ."
-- Wall Street Journal

"But in two new books--a big novel, Marvel and a Wonder , and the anthology Chicago Noir: The Classics , published simultaneously in early September by Akashic in hardcover and paperback--we''re reminded that Meno has a dark side that on occasion he lets out of jail, allowing it to cast a long and menacing shadow."
-- Chicago Tribune

"Evoking William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, Meno''s suspenseful, mordantly incisive, many-layered tale can also be read as an equine Moby-Dick . As he tracks the bewildering seismic shifts under way in America, Meno celebrates everyday marvels, including the hard-proven love between grandfather and grandson."
-- Booklist , Starred review

"In this high-stakes, mordantly incisive, compassionate drama, Quentin, a mixed-race teen, is spending the summer with Jim, his white grandfather, when a magnificent white racehorse is inexplicably delivered to Jim''s Indiana farm."
-- Booklist , Editors'' Choice

"Talented Meno has penned a wise and touching novel of love, loyalty, courage; an extraordinary book not to be missed."
-- Library Journal , Starred review

" Marvel and a Wonder . . . [is] a great contemporary Western that''s deliciously dark and full of unpleasant characters. I loved it, for whatever grim reason that lurks in my soul (and it''s got a fantastic cover), though I''d say it''s probably not for the faint of heart."
-- Library Journal ,"What We/re Reading" Section

Marvel and a Wonder is a darkly mesmerizing epic and literary page-turner set at the end of the twentieth century. In summer 1995, Jim Falls, a Korean War vet, struggles to raise his sixteen-year-old grandson, Quentin, on a farm in southern Indiana. In July, they receive a mysterious gift--a beautiful quarter horse--which upends the balance of their difficult lives. The horse''s appearance catches the attention of a pair of troubled, meth-dealing brothers and, after a violent altercation, the horse is stolen and sold. Grandfather and grandson must travel the landscape of the bleak heartland to reclaim the animal and to confront the ruthless party that has taken possession of it. Along the way, both will be forced to face the misperceptions and tragedies of their past.

Evoking the writing of William Faulkner and Denis Johnson, this brilliant, deeply moving work explores the harrowing, often beautiful marvels of a nation challenged by its own beliefs. Ambitious, expansive, and laden with suspense, Marvel and a Wonder presents an unforgettable pair of protagonists at the beginning of one America and the end of another.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

The mysterious gift of a snowy white quarter horse upends the rural existence of a family in Indiana. Postmodernist Meno (Office Girl, 2012, etc.) changes things up dramatically with this ambitious attempt to reinvent the Faulkner-ian epic for the contemporary age. Where much of the author's previous work has been based around twee tales of young adulthood and familial drama, here he draws on the grave themes and austere styles of writers like Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell to offer a mix of biblical allegories, tinder-dry prose, and noble characters trying to survive in a wretched world. The main character is Jim Falls, an aged Korean War vet who lives on a farm in southern Indiana. His daughter, Deirdre, is a drug-addicted mess who splits on her son, 16-year-old Quentin, whose care falls to Jim by default. One summer day a surprise delivery arrives in the form of a stunning quarter horse as the result of a legal error. Just as grandfather and grandson are gaining hope they might get to keep the magnificent animal, it's stolen by two meth-dealing brothers. The brothers intend to sell the horse in Kentucky, so Jim and his grandson chase them across the great American landscape of dive bars, truck stops, strip clubs, and Winn-Dixie shops, all presented in panoramic vistas. Eventually, Meno introduces a proper villain in Rick West, a sexually abusive grifter who eyes the horse as his prize. The novel's prose is marvelous in its spare, convincing grit while the story's themes of family, redemption, sacrifice, and faith echo the plays of Sam Shepard at times. The novel is occasionally trying too hard, particularly in its portrayals of racial issues in America (the novel is set in 1995 during the O.J. Simpson trial), but these small oversteps don't distract from the novel's elaborate emotional arc. A grandiose, atmospheric portrait of Middle America in all its damaged glory. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.