The Weight of This World by David Joy

This novel won the 2018 Working Class Studies Association Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing and garnered starred reviews from both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Its characters are Thad Broom, an Afghanistan veteran suffering from PTSD, his also traumatized mother, April, and his buddy Aiden McCall. When Aiden and Thad witness the accidental death of their dope dealer, bundles of cash and dope land in their laps.  “Scenes unfold at a furious pace, yet contain such rich description that readers will do well to read slowly, savoring Joy's prose. . . .  Joy's work perfectly aligns with the author's self-described ‘Appalachian noir’ genre, as a sticky film of desperation and tragedy cloaks everything his characters touch. April, Aiden and Thad are hopelessly conflicted, dripping with history and heartache, yet they cling to unique dreams about what life could look like if they carried a bit less weight of the world upon their shoulders.”—Associated Press. “The Weight of This