My review: ⭐⭐⭐

This book covers the teenage years of a boy, whose parents have split up, and he goes from living in Michigan to Montana.

There are some trigger warnings for this book: rape, alcohol abuse, under age sex and animal cruelty.

I didn't find myself gripped by the book. It was a fine story, but I didn't feel like there was much emotional change between August at the beginning of the book Vs at the end of the book.

It jumps forward in time, with your guidance for this being the seasons. I found some of the storylines to be a little loose.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Granta Publications.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This coming of age tale follows August from the ages of 12 to 19. Struggling to deal with girls/women and figuring out what to do with his life. He grows up on a farm, but when his parents divorce, his mum moves him to Montana. I loved the outdoor nature of this book, the American West, where people work hard and play hard. I liked the characters and relationships, especially August's dad who tries his best to stay in his life as August pulls away. I loved the ruggedness of it.

Do beware a couple of TW though: rape and animal torture. Both of which left me feeling rather uncomfortable.

I really wasn’t a fan of this book.
I really didn’t like the level of animal abuse and I felt it was completely unnecessary.

August is a beautiful novel in the tradition of American epics expounded in recent years by the likes of Richard Ford (with 'Canada') and Denis Johnson (with 'Train Dreams'). What distinguishes this book however is the the author's ability to mix brevity, assuredness and lyric without sacrificing a pulsating instinct for plot.

This is a unique coming of age story which finds August taking a different route to finding himself. Well written and crafted the novel gives voice to the alternative choices youngsters can make and the consequences.

I really loved the slow, pace of this engaging coming of age novel and felt completely immersed in the landscapes of the midwest and then the wilds of Montana. I have read a couple of reviews that have been critical of the incidents of violence in the book, one involving animals and the other involving sexual violence. Whilst I didn't enjoy reading these events, they felt true to the story - and by the end of the novel, I had a strong sense of who the protagonist, August was, and how these and other experiences had shaped his life thus far. I loved this book.

This is a coming of age story of a 12 year old boy, set in Montana. I really wanted to like the character of August but he was totally lacking in substance and I failed to find empathy with him. I liked the setting but the animal cruelty and the rape scene left me wishing I had not read the book. I would not recommend this as a book for women but perhaps it is more of a male read. It wasn't for me. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

With thanks to Granta and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I have to admit that, well written as it is, this book just left me cold most of the time, and quite disturbed by the odd scene.

August is 12 years old at the start, an only child growing up on a dairy farm in Michigan, with parents who married young and have recently split up and are living in two different houses on the farm. In the next couple of years his mother moves away and he goes with her, ending up in Montana and drifting seemingly aimlessly through his teenage years while she slowly re-engages with life.

He does reasonably well at school but is a loner, a young man of few words, and we get little insight into his inner life. He isn't a weirdo - you never get the sense that he is going to shoot up his school, as a random example - but he doesn't seem to form attachments in the way most people do. He resists the idea of going to college, and also his father's repeated offers to go back to the dairy farm which will be his eventually. Instead he takes a number of jobs on various ranches as a hired hand, working hard and steadily, going with the flow of any friendship offered him, but strangely passive throughout and just quietly moving on when he no longer likes where he is. His world is one of harsh landscapes, broken families, random accidents, casual cruelty, rank misogyny, hard work and hard drinking, with the Bush administration in the background. Yet life seems to ebb and swirl around him as if he is an inanimate object fixed squarely in the mud at the bottom of a river. Maybe that's how one survives?

There are a few scenes - an episode where the barn cats come to a bad end, a gang rape - which I found very disturbing because they are just narrated factually, with no evidence that they had much impact on August. I very nearly stopped reading at the cat episode, and on the whole, I wish I had, because I didn't really get the point of this book at all. There is maybe a bit of a glimmer of lingering remorse about the gang rape, and a bit of cryptic musing on the nature of life at the close, but I felt it was very much a case of too little, too late. It all just felt like a slice of nothingness to me.

I could not finish the book. I stopped once when there was casual cruelty to animals thrown in but continued because the writing was very well done. Then the party happened and I could just not continue past that and had to read three other happy books before I could stop thinking about it.

It's very difficult to categorise this book, or even to review it; I have mixed feelings about it. At the beginning I nearly gave up due to the animal cruelty (TW for this and rape) but once I got past that I became immersed in the novel.
The book follows the life of August as he grows up from 12 to 19. It's set mainly in rural Montana and differs from the norm in that it is following a rural, farming lifestyle.
Even though nothing much happened throughout this novel I still felt very drawn to it, but then again I found a lot of it slightly distasteful - it felt like it was set much longer ago than the early 2000s due to the chauvinistic nature of those around August. However, that is the skill of the novelist; to immerse us in a culture that we know nothing about and for us to learn from their work.

Callan Wink's writing is vivid, and engaging, and I was completely immersed.

Starting when August is twelve, the novel follows him as he grows into adulthood; through school, his parents' messy divorce, and cross-country moves from Michigan to Wyoming to Montana. One of the most beautifully-written coming of age novels I've read recently (though a heads up for readers that there are a couple of scenes early on that are a) not for the faint-hearted, and b) don't feel representative of the rest of the book...)

Due out in June from Granta - thank you for the review copy!

This novel was as slow as a day of August. As slow as life must be in small communities like the ones portrayed in it. As slow as life must seem to a teenage boy wanting to become a man.
Despite struggling with it's snail pace, I think this book is rather clever. The writing style is very evocative and immersing. Also very realistic. I didn't doubt for a moment that such things could very well happen to a boy from Montana, or Michigan for that matter. I particularly enjoyed August relationship with his father, especially before moving: a boy really needs his father. As for the best part of the book, as far as I am concerned, some of the scenes when he's working for Ancient are just gold - especially those featuring Tim, the young Tim, but those with his father and fairy brother come close too hahahah.

I was drawn to this book as something different, a departure from the books I’ve been reading recently, memoirs and female driven stories.

August is a young boy when the story opens, stuck between his bickering parents and the burden of the dairy farm that demands all of his Dad’s time. The plot skips along quite neatly, as August grapples with friendship and loss, moving to another state far from the farm he grew up on and trying to maintain the balance between his parents while finding himself.

I’m not sure I would say that I was really interested in what happened to August, but I did like the writing style, the stories about the rodeo and the conspiracy theorists August is with – he’s a likeable enough character if not entirely sympathetic.  Near the beginning, for example, his father sets him a task to decrease the surplus farm cat population and he’ll pay him for the tails. As a cat owner, I understand the difference between pets and pest control, but it was still hard to like this slightly sociopathic 12 year old after he’d taken to the task with glee, thinking only about the money. There are hints of him being afraid of the cats too, actually, so maybe that’s part of it.

This is another instance where I don’t think the blurb of the book matches up with the story within. It’s described as having a teen life until ‘a shocking act of violence pushes him off course once more’. Three quarters of the way through the book, I had to have a real think about what that act of violence actually was, as there are a couple. I’m not too sure now, to be honest.  It’s not that there were loads of gory bits, but more that the Violent Act wasn’t highlighted enough. Or maybe I just didn’t pick up on the cues!

The Americana element of the book was engaging – the farm, the rural life August leads as a child and young adult. I could see the river and the fishing line, feel the sun and the tension between working enough to pay your way while getting some time to spend elsewhere.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this but feel that it was more of a collection of short stories about the same character, than a bildungsroman character arc. Wink appears to be most well known as the author of essays and short stories, so perhaps that’s where he ‘s most comfortable. The writing style is quite spare, so if that’s what you’re into, I’d recommend it. If I spotted another Callan Wink on the shelf, I would probably be interested to read it.

Thanks as always to Netgalley, and to the publisher Granta Publications, for the copy.

A coming of age story that follows a boy’s journey from the age of twelve to nineteen. We’re thrust into the world of the American countryside chores and the monotony of everyday life, watching as those get to shape August’s character. We see him deal with his parent’s divorce, moving from his father’s Michigan dairy farm to the city with his mother, before going to Montana. Eventually, once done with high school, August solitary nature pushes him to pursue a short term job on a rig in Wyoming. After quitting two months later, he goes back to Montana to work on a ranch for a guy named Ancient, where he learns a lot of life’s though lessons; you see him grow up and mature.

The prose is beautifully written, making the entire novel feel like you’re actually stuck to August’s backside and forced to watch the good and the bad. Sometimes you want to scream at him and at other times you feel like giving him a hug. The depictions of the hard land were descriptive and dialogue was believable and at times even funny in how well it reflected the everyday nature of real life conversations.

For the majority of the book, the pace was steady; neither too slow nor too fast. You can put the book away for a few days, but it will quietly be calling you back to finish it. The various characters were all well written and we got to know them very well, despite the third person narrative only following August throughout the story. It helped that August is a likeable character; quiet but honest with a perceptive eye. It’s a memorable tale about growing up that I would definitely recommend.

A heart-warming read, tragic and beautifully constructed. An unusual MC with a unique perspective & gorgeous setting, evocatively written.

August’s life take him from Michigan to Montana, where he lives with his chain-smoking other, before heading off to live on a farm and working closely with Ancient, his boss. In some ways, this is a coming-of-age novel where August learns a lot about himself - but it also offers a perspective on a way of life that is perhaps dying.

I found parts of this a bit flat. August get a involved in a situation which is potentially life-changing but then it isn’t really referred back to. It seems that parts of the plot are too unrealistic, mainly due to not depicting believable human behaviour. Despite this, Wink has created an interesting character through August .

A moving atmospheric novel.A family on a farm in Montana their lives.August the young boy living with his parents watching their splitting up. A book that is emotional involving highly recommend.#netgalley#granatabooks

What a terrific read. Living in the UK, in an industrial area, it was fascinating to read a ‘coming of age’ novel set in Michigan and Montana where August develops from a 12 to a 19 year old. The land, the weather, the routine, the farms as big as Wales, the small towns, gas guzzling trucks are all so vividly, beautifully brought to life for a ‘townie’. Sensual and irresistibly immersive.
And yet absolutely familiar are the teenage years of insecurity, broken families, experiments with the opposite sex, rivalry, school, parental pressure, alcohol, emotions. Could have been set anywhere; anytime.
A skilful and engaging debut novel by short story writer Callan Wink is due to be published in June 2020. Many thanks to #NetGalley and #Granta for my pre-release download.

‘He was starting to think that every childhood existed as a unique set of problems, and most of what people called living was just the act of trying to decipher, after the fact, what in the hell had happened to them.’

I am quite a fan of family/coming of age stories set in the heartlands of America so was surprised to find this one a teensy bit dull and at close to 400 pages something of a slog. The characters just didn’t come alive for me, except in the dialogue - I enjoyed that and would have liked much more. On the other hand, descriptions of the landscape were well done and I felt immersed in the work of raising a dairy herd and cattle ranching. And so much information about the meals they ate….

An OK read, but not one I’d particularly recommend.