Scowler by Daniel Kraus

Nineteen-year-old Ry manages the dying family farm with his mother and little sister after his abusive father, Marvin, is sent to prison for a lifetime of violent and verbal familial abuse. When a meteorite strikes the Iowa farming community, Ry’s father escapes from prison determined to make his fortune off the fallen space debris that lands on the farm. Alternating between present tense (early 1980s) and flashbacks that slowly unveil the extent of torture Marvin inflicted on his family, one of Kraus’ early works delves deep into the depravity of the human psyche from the perspective of the abuser and the abused. Scowler contains plenty of unadulterated horror, with Marvin a disturbing and chilling monster, but the lasting impact of his abuse on his son and Ry’s unresolved trauma is terrifying. Scowler is brutal, raw, and visceral, written in beautifully disturbing prose that haunts you long after the final chapter.