"KINGS COUNTY"--Seven years in the making, from critically acclaimed novelist and memoirist DAVID GOODWILLIE, "Kings County" is an ambitious, exuberant, and wholly unforgettable tale of two star-crossed lovers in 21st-century Brooklyn, whose lives are torn apart after their deepest secrets come to light.

Kings County

It’s the early 2000s and like generations of intrepid young hopefuls before her, Audrey Benton arrives in New York City on a bus in the dead of winter, eager to escape her troubled past. Broke but resourceful, she soon finds a home for herself amid the burgeoning music scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But the city’s freedom comes with risks, and Audrey makes dangerous compromises to survive. As she becomes a minor celebrity in indie music circles, she finds an unlikely match in Theo Gorski, a shy but idealistic mill-town kid—the first in his family to attend college—who’s struggling to establish himself in the still-patrician world of books. As artistic “Brooklyn” explodes around them, the young lovers forge a bond as unlikely as it is unbreakable. But when an old friend from Audrey’s past disappears under mysterious circumstances, it sparks a dangerous series of escalating crises that force her and Theo to confront, head on, a shocking secret that threatens not just their relationship, but their very lives.

From the raucous protests of Occupy Wall Street to the hushed halls of the publishing world, from million-dollar art auctions to late-night Bushwick drug dens, Kings County captures New York City at a heightened moment of cultural reckoning. Confronting the resonant issues and themes of our time—sex and violence, art and commerce, friendship and family—it’s a new kind of love story, both coolly classic and vividly contemporary, that dazzles with wit and moral resonance, with two unforgettable characters at its core. Richly plotted and deeply humane, Kings County is an epic coming-of-age tale about bravery, consequences, and finding one’s place in an ever-changing world.

Reviews

 

“Dazzling writing, propulsive storytelling, relevant and timeless characters—that’s exactly what David Goodwillie has accomplished in Kings County. He’s created a true urban tableau, at once gritty and hopeful. Kings County crystallizes how it feels to be young and in love in New York City.”—Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

“Goodwillie has the anthropology of New York down. In Kings County, young professionals struggle to find their moral compass as they test the limits of their relationships under the glare of city lights, and suffer the dramatic effects of their past and present decisions. He weaves suspense around a dark, page-turning mystery that stays palpable to the end, and his confident—and often comedic—narrative hand allows him to seamlessly fold in contemporary events and generate a necessary social document for this new age of unenlightenment.”
—Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves

“Kings County is a heart-wrenching love story, a character-driven suspense novel, and a lush thrill-ride through the New York City aughts. For some of us who lived in Brooklyn at the turn of the century, it’s a meticulous period piece that doesn’t sacrifice immediacy for the nostalgia it provokes. For those who didn’t, it’s a scintillating glimpse into the zeitgeist that followed 9/11—the music, movements, and sense of impending upheaval that foretold our chaotic present.”—Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me

“Goodwillie captures the rapturous soul of a bygone Brooklyn: the songs, the sex, the bars, the youth! And then the churn of relentless change, the broken hearts, the crushing realities. But it is the searing burn of discovery that makes Kings County a true and continual delight.”—Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End

“Goodwillie pins his characters to the page with a lepidopterist’s merciless affection—and then, by some trick of resuscitation, lets them fly in a Brooklyn that’s a kind of darkly miraculous forest populated by charismatic and errant fauna. Kings County is a thrilling and persuasive read.”—Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland

“With Tom Wolfean sociological precision, David Goodwillie casts an insider’s eye on the Brooklyn creative class in a gripping novel as suspenseful as it is panoramic. Kings County is a grand, galloping ride.”—Teddy Wayne, author of Apartment


David Goodwillie

 

David Goodwillie is the author of the acclaimed novel AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE (Scribner). Hailed as "genuinely thrilling" by The New Yorker, and "a triumphant work of fiction" by the AP, it was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010, and a Vanity Fair and Publisher's Weekly top ten Spring debut. He is also the author of 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 members of the PEN American Center. Goodwillie writes about books for The New York Times and The Daily Beast, and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including New York, Popular Science, Men's Health, Black Book, The New York Observer, and The New York Post. He has played professional baseball, worked as a private investigator, and been an expert at Sotheby's auction house. A graduate of Kenyon College, he lives in New York City.

http://www.davidgoodwillie.com