American Salvage

By Bonnie Jo Campbell,

Book cover of American Salvage

Book description

American Salvage is rich with local color and peopled with rural characters who love and hate extravagantly. They know how to fix cars and washing machines, how to shoot and clean game, and how to cook up methamphetamine, but they have not figured out how to prosper in the twenty-first…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep the lights on. Or join the rebellion as a member.

Why read it?

1 author picked American Salvage as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Loads of commentators are talking about the struggles of rural America, but Bonnie Jo Campbell brings those hardships to life in the stories in this book. She intimately knows her place—the rust belt counties of rural Michigan—and her characters are sharply drawn and utterly convincing.

She makes me care about each and every one of them, even when I disagree with them, even when I don’t really like them at all! Still, I understand and respect them, and I’m forced not to treat them as statistics but as human beings. I love the brutal honesty and hard-won moments of hope…

From Joe's list on books about rural America.

Want books like American Salvage?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like American Salvage.

Browse books like American Salvage

Book cover of Men We Reaped: A Memoir
Book cover of The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Book cover of Plainsong

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,118

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in topics and characters, gender identity, and gender variance?

Gender Identity 81 books
Gender Variance 21 books