Lord of the Barnyard opens with the death of a woolly mammoth in the last age and concludes with a greased-pig-chase funeral in the modern-day Midwest. In the interim there are two hydroelectric dam disasters, fourteen tavern brawls, one shoot-out in the hills, three cases of suspected arson, a riot in the town hall, a lone tornado, a coven of Methodist crones, an encampment of Appalachian crop thieves, six renegade coal-truck operators, an outraged mob of factory rats, a dysfunctional poultry plant and one autodidact goat-roping farm boy by the name of John Kaltenbrunner.
Tristan Egolf's debut novel is a brilliantly comic tapestry of Middle America - of overtaxed assembly-line workers snapping on the job one afternoon, leaving their posts in mid-stride and driving stolen oil tankers through highway-side Baptist churches.
