Wade Whitehouse, divorced, estranged from his young daughter, spends his days as a well-driller, snow-plow operator, and policeman, his nights in a wind-swept trailer park. But when a union boss is killed in an apparent hunting accident near Wade's home, and he is convinced that it is murder, he seizes the event as a chance to right many wrongs - unaware that as he unravels the mystery he himself will become unravelled. Soon his hunger for justice and self-respect become inseparable from a desperate violence.

"Everything about Affliction is impressive-- [It] will not let go of you, I swear, until you turn the last page." -Elmore Leonard

"With Affliction, Banks has become the most important white male American on the official literary map, a writer we can actually learn from, whose books help and urge us to change." -The Village Voice
"A powerful and often astonishing novel of which it can safely be said that it should be read over and over for many years to come." -The Kitchener-Waterloo Record