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. 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. It wasn't until I actually began writing that I found out that wasn't really true.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. 'The principle reasons for me, as far as being a writer, were: You were your own boss you could do it anywhere and you made lots of money. 'I'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world,' he says. At 45, he quit his job at the mill in order to go to graduate school and become a writer. A high school dropout, he worked in a meatpacking plant and then in a paper mill for 32 years. Pollock moved 13 miles away, to the town of Chillicothe. but I just thought that I'd rather be somewhere else.' It was nice to have a lot of family around. 'From a very early age, I was thinking about escaping. 'When I was a kid, it was claustrophobic for me,' he says. Most of those people, says fiction writer Donald Ray Pollock, were 'connected by blood through one godforsaken calamity or another.'

In the 1950s, Knockemstiff had three stores, a bar and a population of about 450 people. Knockemstiff, Ohio, is a tiny hamlet in southern Ohio.

Donald Ray Pollock's The Devil All the Time is now out in paperback. This interview was originally broadcast on July 26, 2011. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Devil All the Time Author Donald Ray Pollock

A devil all the time book