{"id":153210,"date":"2025-11-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=153210"},"modified":"2025-11-05T10:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:27:19","slug":"matt-bondurant-in-conversation-with-tom-franklin-for-north-country-tuesday-november-11-at-5-30pm-off-square-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/matt-bondurant-in-conversation-with-tom-franklin-for-north-country-tuesday-november-11-at-5-30pm-off-square-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Bondurant in conversation with Tom Franklin for “North Country” Tuesday, November 11 at 5:30pm at Off Square Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A taut thriller set along the northern border, from the author of the international bestseller <\/strong>The Wettest County in the World <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Matt Bondurant in conversation with Tom Franklin for <\/strong>North Country<\/em><\/strong>, a literary thriller that explores the monsters frozen in the depths of the human soul. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the book<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

North Chazy, New York is the heart of the North Country, a frigid region nestled against the Canadian border,\u00a0characterized by the beautiful landscapes of the\u00a0Adirondacks and Lake Champlain–plus a steady stream of Quebecois drugs flowing south, spirited by snowmobile\u00a0across the ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Kaiser, fresh off a dishonorable discharge from the\u00a0Air Force, returns to North Chazy for his ailing father’s\u00a0final days. It’s an uneasy homecoming–ever since his\u00a0little sister was lost under the ice in mysterious circumstances when they were children, Kaiser has felt a terrible presence swimming in the deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needing work, Kaiser falls in with Donnie LeClair, a slumlord, loan shark, and aesthete whose private collection of landscapes would rival a modest museum’s. Kaiser earns his keep roughing up unsavory locals who are late on their rent. But his true value is his aptitude for satellite telemetry, allowing him to find gaps in border surveillance, a useful skill for working with a Montreal kingpin who wants to move large quantities of ecstasy into the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kaiser spirals through the underbelly of drugs and crime, he finds the roots of evil run deep in the North Country–as bleak, impenetrable, and foreboding as the frozen lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Matt Bondurant\u2019s previous novels include Oleander City<\/em>, a historical novel about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, The Night Swimmer<\/em>, which was featured in the New York Times Book Review <\/em>and Outside Magazine<\/em>, The Wettest County in the World<\/em>, an international bestseller that was adapted into the feature film Lawless, and his first novel, The Third Translation<\/em>, also an international bestseller, translated into fourteen languages. Matt has published numerous short stories, poems, essays, and book reviews, as well as feature articles specializing in adventure and endurance sports. He currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the conversation partner\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers<\/em>, Hell at the Breech<\/em>, Smonk<\/em>, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter <\/em>and, with Beth Ann Fennelly, The Tilted World<\/em>. His new novel will be out from William Morrow early in 2027. He lives here in Oxford and teaches in the Ole Miss MFA Dept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Country\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
By Matt Bondurant\u00a0
$28.99\u00a0
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing\u00a0
ISBN: 9798874809362<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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