Set against a backdrop of the current political and cultural upheaval in the US and Eastern Europe, The Unmade World is a thoughtful, scope-y literary novel with a dose of suspense that moves from Poland to California to the Hudson Valley and back to Poland. It covers a decade in the lives of an American journalist and a Polish small businessman turned petty criminal and the wrenching aftermath of an accidental, tragic encounter between these two on a snowy night in 2006 on the outskirts of Krakow. The accident costs the lives of the American journalist Richard Brennan's wife and daughter, an event that colors the rest of his life. It also leads to a downward spiral for Bogdan Baranowsk, leaving emotional scars as he suffers the seemingly inevitable loss of his business, his home, and his wife. The Unmade World is a story of ordinary, otherwise decent people from various backgrounds and circumstances who must learn how to live with the personal grief, sense of guilt, and the emotional consequences of violence. Along the way, the novel grapples with a spectrum of cultural and political issues. It includes a murder mystery wrapped around the corruption of major college sports, the pressures on immigrants and refugees in both the US and Poland, the fallout of political change, economic upheavals and armed conflicts--including the horrific destruction of Luhansk, Ukraine in 2014. It also references the 2016 presidential campaign, cultural politics in the American university, and the demise of print journalism, etc., though never in a dogmatic or overtly partisan way.
Industry Reviews
"Oh my what a wonderful novel that grows and grows in power as one goes along. Fueled by beautiful writing The Unmade World swirls in a mixture of suspense, pathos and heartbreaking love where characters suffer losses, make mistakes, live misfortunes and take a stab at choices seemingly to reverse their fortunes but with decidedly mixed results. Ultimately characters find themselves faced with trying to figure out what is the right thing to do and then how to do it each knowing that humans have some broken parts and repairing what is possible to repair takes using a form of courage thought out of reach. This is the kind of novel that treats is inhabitants with tenderness and its readers with grace. It will not easily be forgotten." -Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfields Books, California
"In The Unmade World, Steve Yarbrough seamlessly blends a moving story of love, loss and recovery with a page-turning mystery that keeps the reader on the edge of her seat." --Emily Russo, A Bookstore, Maine
"Just a dynamite novel, one I admire and frankly had trouble putting down." -Richard Howarth, Oxford Books, MS
"The Unmade World by Steve Yarbrough is an atmospheric novel of the first degree. Spanning the world from Poland to California to New York, Yarbrough writes of two men, Richard and Bogdan, who glimpse each other at the height of a tragedy. Both hope for and dread the day when they might meet again. A study of the human condition, this redemptive novel is timely and riveting. In 2016 Chicago Now said of author Steve Yarbrough, `He's a contemporary, damn good author whose books need to be read.' Here's your chance!" --Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault, Iowa
"Steve Yarbrough is a master novelist, and this may be his finest work. Every word of The Unmade World rings true. Its settings are indelible. Its characters live and breathe. For a long time to come, I'll be pondering what this book has taught me about the human heart." -Amy Greene
"The Unmade World is tone perfect, skillfully constructed and consummately realized. It's the work of an extraordinary novelist. I'm fortunate to have read it." -- Richard Ford
"This many-layered novel is a thriller, a love story, a travelogue full of richly observed scenes, a morality tale replete with betrayal, remorse and lust for revenge, and a hilarious comedy. The tight control Yarbrough exercises over the ten-year span of the story kept me turning the pages and left me full of admiration." -Colm Toibin
"With elegant, economic prose Steve Yarbrough has fashioned a thriller wrapped in a literary novel. It brings to mind Graham Greene and Charles McCarry, with the crackling dialogue of George Higgins or Elmore Leonard . . . . This rich, multi-layered novel is deeply evocative: its compassionate melancholy will haunt you. Yarbrough is a smart, humane writer and his empathy shines on every page of The Unmade World. Also, the novel, in the right hands, would make a crackerjack movie." --Corey Mesler, Burke's Book Store, Memphis TN
