PROJECT DESCRIPTION

2 AM in Little America is a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America’s young people to flee its borders into an unwelcoming world.

Protagonist Ron Patterson finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees. In an unnamed city wedged between ocean and lush mountainous forest, Ron can almost imagine a stable life for himself. Especially when he makes the first friend he has had in years—a mysterious migrant named Marlise.

Brimming with mystery, suspense, and Kalfus’s distinctive comic irony, 2 A.M. in Little America poses several questions vital to the current moment: What happens when privilege is reversed? Who is watching and why? How do tribalized politics disrupt our ability to distinguish what is true and what is not? This is a story for our time—gripping, unsettling, prescient—by one of our most acclaimed novelists.

I wanted to create a sense of foreboding for this darkly comic novel, so I turned to Kramer O'Neill's super-granular black-and-white photography, and created a collage with vectors—featuring part of the Target logo— a key plot point is that something terrible happened at a Target in the US, and that's why the young people fled. I offered some texture to the composition with a vintage stippling example from the turn of the century and positioned the building at a severe perspective and low in the frame in a nod to Ed Ruscha's Standard Station silkscreen print from 1966.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.5

Number of Pages: 256

Binding Method: Permabound

Paper: Jacket: 12 pt C1s white with matte lamination and embossing on the type. Interior: Rolland Enviro 100% Post-consumer waste

Typefaces: Carters Regular, Drop and Shadow

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Mary Austin Speaker

Art Director:

Book Designer: Mary Austin Speaker

Jacket/Cover Designer: Mary Austin Speaker

Illustrator: Mary Austin Speaker

Photographer: Kramer O'Neill

Picture Editor:

Production Director:

Production Coordinator: Lindsay Lake / Bookmobile

Production Artist:

Other Credits: Milkweed Editions - Publisher

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