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Set in contemporary Northern California, THE HARDER THEY COME explores the volatile connections between three damaged people - an aging ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, his psychologically unstable son, and the sons paranoid, antigovernment, much-older lover - as they careen toward an explosive confrontation.

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Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author T.C. Boyle makes his Ecco debut with a powerful, gripping novel that explores the roots of violence and anti-authoritarianism inherent in the American character.

Set in contemporary Northern California, The Harder They Come explores the volatile connections between three damaged people-an aging ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, his psychologically unstable son, and the son´s paranoid, much older lover-as they careen towards an explosive confrontation.

On a vacation cruise to Central America with his wife, seventy-year-old Sten Stensen unflinchingly kills a gun-wielding robber menacing a busload of senior tourists. The reluctant hero is relieved to return home to Fort Bragg, California, after the ordeal-only to find that his delusional son, Adam, has spiraled out of control.

Adam has become involved with Sara Hovarty Jennings, a hardened member of the Sovereign Citizens´ Movement, right-wing anarchists who refuse to acknowledge the laws and regulations of the state, considering them to be false and non-applicable. Adam´s senior by some fifteen years, Sara becomes his protector and inamorata. As Adam´s mental state fractures, he becomes increasingly schizophrenic-a breakdown that leads him to shoot two people in separate instances. On the run, he takes to the woods, spurring the biggest manhunt in California history.

As he explores a father´s legacy of violence and his powerlessness in relating to his equally violent son, T. C. Boyle offers unparalleled psychological insights into the American psyche. Inspired by a true story, The Harder They Come is a devastating and indelible novel from a modern master.

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"The Harder They Come has no solutions to the delusions and dysfunctions it portrays. But it taps memorably into something deeply skewed in the American psyche." The Oregonian (Portland)

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T.C. Boyle has published fourteen novels and ten collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his novel World´s End, and the Prix Médicis étranger for The Tortilla Curtain in 1995, as well as the 2014 Henry David Thoreau award for excellence in nature writing. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Barbara.

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