The Devil All the Time

By: Donald Ray Pollock

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of Knockemstiff—called “powerful, remarkable, exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times—comes a dark and riveting vision of America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree.

In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic over­tones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting.

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.

©2011 Donald Ray Pollock (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"If Pollock’s powerful collection Knockemstiff was a punch to the jaw, his follow-up, a novel set in the violent soul-numbing towns of southern Ohio and West Virginia, feels closer to a mule’s kick, and how he draws these folks and their inevitably hopeless lives without pity is what the kick’s all about." ( Publishers Weekly)

"The God-fearing hard-luck characters who populate Donald Ray Pollock’s debut novel, The Devil All the Time, move through the southern outlands of Ohio and the isolated hollows of West Virginia like figures in a collective nightmare of poverty, addiction, superstition, and crime" (Lisa Shea, ELLE magazine)

“This novel fulfills the promise made by Pollock’s debut collection, Knockemstiff. He is a real writer, and The Devil All The Time hits you like a telegram from Hell slid under your door at three o’clock in the morning.” (William Gay, author of Provinces of Night and The Long Home)

Flannery O'Connor on overdrive

This author is a hidden gem and I have discovered lives not far from me. I know the places he writes of and have hunted in those areas. I can see the people he describes, true as life. He is a great rider and should be read. The garbage I read on the best seller's list pales in comparison. The religious undertones and country living I myself grew up with are not fiction. Those simplistic virtues and basic living are rural America. Great intertwining story and theme. Keep writing, love the conversational and stream of thought prose.

Do yourself a favor and read something that is tangible.

Great story!

I found this as a recommended book for Stephen King lovers. This has been the best so far among the list. Not too complicated, good visuals, interesting and exciting throughout. As a lover of dark, suspenseful, and unique stories, I got everything I wanted.

saw the movie... decided to get the book!

loved it. finished it! recommend it.
the Narrator does an awesome job, and even with time jumps you are never lost with what's going on

I'm so depressed now

I love the story, and Mark Beanball did an amazing job, but wow am I sad now!

Great reading for a dark story,

Not many books have moments that really stick with me for weeks or months after reading them, but this book had multiple. Coming from a southern background the setting really connected with me and the characters were extremely believable. If you're looking for a happy story I wouldn't pick up this book, but if you're up for a dark and gritty journey through a southern town you're in for a treat. On top of that the narration is spot on and the film on Netflix is very well adapted as well!

Very, very well-written, captivating, evil.

Holy$#@!!! Definitely never boring. Smart. Amazing but... vile, brutal stuff makes it hard to recommend.

What the @&$!?

This book is messed up! So good! But so messed up! I love the intertwined characters, and how realistic these stories could be! I may need some therapy after the movie comes out! But I can’t stop watching the trailer, now that I know what is going on. The performance, was perfect!

very violent, well written but

maybe a time in American history that some would rather forget. Harsh, gritty and really paints an atmospheric picture you can feel as you get through it.

wow!!!

very dark and twisted just the right way.... very compelling and gritty. story telling at its finest. great performance. Mark Bramhall is the best!

This book made me fall in love with Audiobooks

I watched the 2020 movie adaptation of this book first. I loved the movie and when I found out it was based off of a book, I wanted to check it out. I generally don't have time to read, so I thought I would give an audiobook a try. This book was great. It's rather dark and possibly unsettling for some, but it really reels you in with the characters and their stories. I think the book puts a lot more spotlight into the woman and man picking up hitchhikers than the movie does, which was interesting. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a story set in a smaller town (which is the vibe I got from it) and enjoy dark themes. It was a great story and the narrator was a perfect fit.