A harrowing, intense, powerful new novel that reads like a classic, from one of the great writers of his generation.Nineteen battles his way into the pros, becomes the quarterback, becomes the myth. Marries the owner’s daughter, touches greatness few will ever dream of, retires into what he assumes will be the promised afterlife of days on the golf course, celebrity endorsements, and cushy real estate investments. But markets tank, family disintegrates, fame fades, and the holes in his mind and memory from a career of punishment on the field become too large and frightening to ignore. When he hears of a miracle brain damage treatment forbidden in the U.S., he travels to the Mosquito Coast of Honduras in search of a chance to restore himself to the man he was. Instead, he finds himself on a journey that plunges him into a darkness more violent and horrific than he could have possibly imagined—at once a fight for his life and to hold onto the shards and fragments of the life he’s fighting for. A sports saga, sprawling thriller, and existential reckoning with the rot at the core of the west, told by an unheralded, singular master, Pure Life is a daring, complex, and brutal confrontation with and demolition of our modern myths in the most primal of settings—one as perilous as it is imperiled.

A disturbing, darkly funny fictionalization of the life of Fred A. Leuchter, the garage tinkerer turned execution authority who became a darling of the neo-Nazi movement, and subject of the Errol Morris documentary, Mr. Death.He comes to fix your photocopier, but really, Fred’s an inventor. At night, he goes to work. He has goals, ambitions, and when offered the task of building a better electric chair, he jumps at the chance. People have to die—he believes in the occasional necessity of evil—but what if we could kill them more humanely?A death specialist, first in his field but forever under-appreciated, he’s charmed when a new generation of fascists come calling for his expertise. A Holocaust denier is on trial in Toronto—could Fred prove the gas chambers never existed? Newspapers descend. Talking heads have their say. A documentarist makes a film. Everyone will know his name, though some things society will simply not abide. Dishonoured, discredited, disgraced. But Fred’s work does not stop, and the world may yet be reminded of the dangerous truth that some men are driven by forces far more powerful than shame. First published in 2013, this is the updated and definitive edition of Eugene Marten’s chilling masterwork of transformational historical fiction.

In this powerful look at the underside of life in an unnamed city on one of the Great Lakes, a young man who has recently been released from a six-year stint in prison finds employment in a Syrian-owned locksmith shop. What unfolds is a riveting account of a man's quest to reinvent himself, to find grace, family and community in a sordid, decaying world. It is also a beautifully crafted crime novel marked by indelible observations, mysterious obsessions and an appreciation of the techniques, tools and hazards of a locksmith's life. A great book' - Gordon Lish'

"Marten''s powerful novel focuses on a man trying to put the shards of his life together...Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Thompson, in particular, should take note." —Roberta Johnson, Booklist (starred review)Eugene Marten''s In the Blind takes readers through a keyhole and shows it to be a tunnel, a cave -- a way through to a hard-earned light. The speaker in this astonishing novel has been released from the boiler room dark of prison, but he is not free. He must move on at an angle against all that has been subtracted from the world he returns to, and always against the bleak weight of memory. By accident he finds work in a locksmith''s shop, and something in the dark inner spaces of the locks speaks to him of a universe of locks, and to the prospect of a concentration that will open the way to breathable air. With the uncanny precision of observation found in Cormac McCarthy''s Suttree, and the eerie mystery of Don Delillo''s The Body Artist, Marten generates a narrative that enthralls. When released by the book''s amazing close, readers will find themselves in the new light cast by this novel, and with a hunger for more of Eugene Marten''s fine work.

A harrowing, intense, powerful new novel that reads like a classic, from one of the great writers of his generation.Nineteen battles his way into the pros, becomes the quarterback, becomes the myth. Marries the owner’s daughter, touches greatness few will ever dream of, retires into what he assumes will be the promised afterlife of days on the golf course, celebrity endorsements, and cushy real estate investments. But markets tank, family disintegrates, fame fades, and the holes in his mind and memory from a career of punishment on the field become too large and frightening to ignore. When he hears of a miracle brain damage treatment forbidden in the U.S., he travels to the Mosquito Coast of Honduras in search of a chance to restore himself to the man he was. Instead, he finds himself on a journey that plunges him into a darkness more violent and horrific than he could have possibly imagined—at once a fight for his life and to hold onto the shards and fragments of the life he’s fighting for. A sports saga, sprawling thriller, and existential reckoning with the rot at the core of the west, told by an unheralded, singular master, Pure Life is a daring, complex, and brutal confrontation with and demolition of our modern myths in the most primal of settings—one as perilous as it is imperiled.

A disturbing, darkly funny fictionalization of the life of Fred A. Leuchter, the garage tinkerer turned execution authority who became a darling of the neo-Nazi movement, and subject of the Errol Morris documentary, Mr. Death.He comes to fix your photocopier, but really, Fred’s an inventor. At night, he goes to work. He has goals, ambitions, and when offered the task of building a better electric chair, he jumps at the chance. People have to die—he believes in the occasional necessity of evil—but what if we could kill them more humanely?A death specialist, first in his field but forever under-appreciated, he’s charmed when a new generation of fascists come calling for his expertise. A Holocaust denier is on trial in Toronto—could Fred prove the gas chambers never existed? Newspapers descend. Talking heads have their say. A documentarist makes a film. Everyone will know his name, though some things society will simply not abide. Dishonoured, discredited, disgraced. But Fred’s work does not stop, and the world may yet be reminded of the dangerous truth that some men are driven by forces far more powerful than shame. First published in 2013, this is the updated and definitive edition of Eugene Marten’s chilling masterwork of transformational historical fiction.

In this powerful look at the underside of life in an unnamed city on one of the Great Lakes, a young man who has recently been released from a six-year stint in prison finds employment in a Syrian-owned locksmith shop. What unfolds is a riveting account of a man's quest to reinvent himself, to find grace, family and community in a sordid, decaying world. It is also a beautifully crafted crime novel marked by indelible observations, mysterious obsessions and an appreciation of the techniques, tools and hazards of a locksmith's life. A great book' - Gordon Lish'

"Marten''s powerful novel focuses on a man trying to put the shards of his life together...Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Thompson, in particular, should take note." —Roberta Johnson, Booklist (starred review)Eugene Marten''s In the Blind takes readers through a keyhole and shows it to be a tunnel, a cave -- a way through to a hard-earned light. The speaker in this astonishing novel has been released from the boiler room dark of prison, but he is not free. He must move on at an angle against all that has been subtracted from the world he returns to, and always against the bleak weight of memory. By accident he finds work in a locksmith''s shop, and something in the dark inner spaces of the locks speaks to him of a universe of locks, and to the prospect of a concentration that will open the way to breathable air. With the uncanny precision of observation found in Cormac McCarthy''s Suttree, and the eerie mystery of Don Delillo''s The Body Artist, Marten generates a narrative that enthralls. When released by the book''s amazing close, readers will find themselves in the new light cast by this novel, and with a hunger for more of Eugene Marten''s fine work.