“Book Descriptions: Ernie and his brother, Scott, have never seen eye-to-eye—literally or figuratively. Scott’s a mountain of a man; Ernie’s a meek computer analyst with a shambles of a marriage, who never, ever answers the phone when his brother calls.
That all changes when Scott is introduced as the face of Go West!, a video game featuring his old wrestling persona, Mr. Bison. Now among the nouveau riche, Scott invites Ernie to come live with him and his pregnant wife, Holly, a teacher and aspiring diarist, on their new farm—complete with a living, breathing buffalo, Billy.
When the video-game producers call on Scott to help sell Go West!, Holly orchestrates an American road trip that sends the brothers eastward and into the less-traveled depths of their hearts and memories. What ensues is an episodic tale that examines themes of grief, sibling rivalry, ambition, and the repercussions of toxic masculinity as it follows the Isaacson brothers’ fumbling attempts to reestablish their childhood relationship—or what they wish that relationship had been.
In perfect tune with the complexities of modern communication and with a wry sense of humor, Aaron Burch’s epic debut novel, Year of the Buffalo, explores our stories—the ones we tell ourselves, the ones we tell each other, and the ones we might never tell at all.” DRIVE