The Unmade World: A Novel

"Just a dynamite novel, one I admire and frankly had trouble putting down." -Richard Howorth, Oxford Books, MS "With the flavor of an international thriller and deep explorations of grieving and healing, The Unmade World is a novel with heart." -Aimee Jodoin, Foreword Magazine "Heartbreaking and redemptive, The Unmade World . . . is a beautiful novel, thought provoking and moving and, for added pleasure, embedded with a murder mystery. Deeply satisfying, it stayed with me long after I read the last word, leaving me to muse about what the hapless Bogdan would so eloquently call the imponderables." --Kathy Langer, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO "Both meditative and engaging, this novel of changed times and changed lives hangs on the vagaries of fate, touching on issues from the refugee crisis to corruption in college sports while rolling out the quiet suspense of whether justice will be served. Rich with issues of guilt, grief, and cultural dislocation; an accomplished work that's good for book groups." -Library Journal "In Yarbrough's intricate and satisfying novel (after The Realm of Last Chances), the lives of two ordinary men intersect during one winter night in Poland. . . The story tracks Bogdan and Richard through the following years, revealing how both come to grips with that night, grapple with their senses of self, and cope with the repercussions of long-held guilt. Yarbrough crafts intriguing subplots involving a murder investigation and property crime, set against a backdrop of 2016 politics. Though the prose is straightforward, the characters are compelling and the narrative steers clear of easy moralizing or predictable endings." Publishers Weekly "Despite graphic deaths and a variety of police cases, Yarbrough's 11th work of fiction (The Realm of Last Chances, 2013, etc.) is less a murder mystery than an exploration of how abruptly lives can go off the rails. Actually, readers will root for all the novel's tenderly drawn, flawed characters. Despite his book's depiction of dark realities--the guilt and despair of the characters' interior lives is matched by political turmoil in both the U.S. and Eastern Europe--Yarbrough's pensively hopeful view of people' capacity to endure, even prosper, shines through." -Kirkus, starred "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 "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 "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 "In The Unmade World, Steve Yarborough 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 "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 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 "What happens when everything you hold dear is taken from you? What kind of life must you live now? And how will you do it? These are just a few of the dramatically rich questions posed by Steve Yarbrough's wonderful new novel, The Unmade World. Written with his characteristically compassionate yet unsentimental prose, and spanning a decade and two continents, Steve Yarbrough takes us deeply into the diverse lives of characters whose fates have forced them to confront the universal truth that everything given us is temporary, and we have only so much time to live the one life given to each of us. The Unmade World is a wise, moving, and deeply compelling story of our time here in the tumultuous early years of the 21st Century.-- Andre Dubus III "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 "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 The Realm of Last Chances: "Inspires the kind of wonder and elation one feels in the hands of a gifted writer. . . . [It] turns a light on the kind of lives that so often go unremarked, suffusing them with compassion, empathy and rare beauty." --The Washington Post "Yarbrough is a brilliant social observer and possesses a talent for detail -- whether describing political bumper stickers or sandwich orders -- that elevates The Realm of Last Chances " --Chicago Tribune The Oxygen Man: "Positively sparkles with soul and feeling ... A first novel to be treasured." -- USA Today "A clear-eyed, expertly written first novel." -- Time Magazine "The Oxygen Man is a deeply felt book about novel choices and the destinies created by those choices and by circumstances beyond our control: our class, our race, the time and place we're born." -- Chicago Tribune The End of California: "One of the brightest Southern writers since Pat Conroy ... an evocative portrait of a place and people every bit as complex as Faulkner's." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Compelling ... Yarbrough has a keen ear [and] a sharp eye for changes in the cultural landscape." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review "Graceful, precise and packed with surprises." --The Washington Post Visible Spirits: "Invites comparison with Faulkner's greatest novels." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "A compelling look at moral courage ... The place, people, events, and emotions are so authentic, it's hard to believe the story is fiction." -- USA Today "A powerful tale ... A skillful interweaving of complicated relationships to family and history." -- Washington Post "Yarbrough's story, full of well-rounded characters wrestling with family secrets and sexual jealousy, is compelling throughout." -- The Times of London Safe from the Neighbors: "A satisfying, deftly constructed narrative that contemplates the difficulty with which we shed our ties to history ... An intricate, absorbing tale." -- Washington Post "Yarbrough, who has been likened to Faulkner for his attention to Mississippi ... nimbly illustrates what the past can tell us about the present." -- New York Times Book Review "Yarbrough's lines can stop you in your tracks." -- Florida Times-Union Prisoners of War: "Yarbrough writes with quiet compassion." -- New York Times Book Review "The highest kind of art, full of subtlety and sensitivity." -- Dallas Morning News "Vivid and dramatic ... Prisoners of War is smart and entertaining." -- San Francisco Chronicle "With subtlety, compassion and detachment Yarbrough teases out the notion that the line separating those who can be saved from those who cannot is very fine and too easily crossed." -- Memphis Commercial Appeal Prisoners of War "Yarbrough writes with quiet compassion." -- New York Times Book Review "The highest kind of art, full of subtlety and sensitivity." -- Dallas Morning News "Vivid and dramatic ... Prisoners of War is smart and entertaining." -- San Francisco Chronicle "With subtlety, compassion and detachment Yarbrough teases out the notion that the line separating those who can be saved from those who cannot is very fine and too easily crossed." -- Memphis Commercial Appeal Safe from the Neighbors "A satisfying, deftly constructed narrative that contemplates the difficulty with which we shed our ties to history ... An intricate, absorbing tale." -- Washington Post "Yarbrough, who has been likened to Faulkner for his attention to Mississippi ... nimbly illustrates what the past can tell us about the present." -- New York Times Book Review "Yarbrough's lines can stop you in your tracks." -- Florida Times-Union The Realm of Last Chances "Inspires the kind of wonder and elation one feels in the hands of a gifted writer. . . . [It] turns a light on the kind of lives that so often go unremarked, suffusing them with compassion, empathy and rare beauty." --The Washington Post "Yarbrough is a brilliant social observer and possesses a talent for detail -- whether describing political bumper stickers or sandwich orders -- that elevates The Realm of Last Chances " --Chicago Tribune The End of California "One of the brightest Southern writers since Pat Conroy ... an evocative portrait of a place and people every bit as complex as Faulkner's." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Compelling ... Yarbrough has a keen ear [and] a sharp eye for changes in the cultural landscape." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review "Graceful, precise and packed with surprises." --The Washington Post Visible Spirits "Invites comparison with Faulkner's greatest novels." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "A compelling look at moral courage ... The place, people, events, and emotions are so authentic, it's hard to believe the story is fiction." -- USA Today "A powerful tale ... A skillful interweaving of complicated relationships to family and history." -- Washington Post "Yarbrough's story, full of well-rounded characters wrestling with family secrets and sexual jealousy, is compelling throughout." -- The Times of London The Oxygen Man "Positively sparkles with soul and feeling ... A first novel to be treasured." -- USA Today "A clear-eyed, expertly written first novel." -- Time Magazine "The Oxygen Man is a deeply felt book about novel choices and the destinies created by those choices and by circumstances beyond our control: our class, our race, the time and place we're born." -- Chicago Tribune

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.