Literati Presents | Jess Walter: So Far Gone

Event Summary

Date(s): Monday, June 8, 2026
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Venue: Downtown Branch of AADL
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Event Description

Literati and AADL welcome Jess Walter to the library, celebrating the paperback release of So Far Gone. He’ll be joined in conversation by Amanda Uhle.

About The Book:

Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid. At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons.

Now Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind.

Jess Walter is the author of eight novels, including the bestsellers So Far Gone, The Cold Millions, and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. As a reporter, he was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Ruby Ridge. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

Amanda Uhle is Executive Director and Publisher of McSweeney’s, founded by Dave Eggers and known for its award-winning quarterly literary journal, humor website and eclectic book publishing program, along with magazines The Believer and Illustoria. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Politico Magazine, Newsweek, ThinkProgress, The Boston Globe, and Oprah Daily. Her memoir, Destroy This House, was an Elle magazine best book of 2025.