3 Review(s)

The lives of congenial American fly-fisherman Billy and his younger sister Alice meander alongside the Susquehanna River in this offbeat coming-of-age novel of death, madness and fishing by debut author Karen Fielding. What starts out as a frolic of losers and drifters along the American riverscape flows into something more sinister when twelve-year-old Billy Sycamore encounters a stranger in the woods, while Alice is left to deal with the fall-out. In the spirit of Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America and idiosyncratic as a George Saunders story, American Sycamore is a funny and fractious narrative about growing up in a small town in northeast America, with not a lot to do, but a whole lot to worry about. Karen Fielding lives in London and has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism from Boston University and an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmith's College. The chapter 'City of Brotherly of Love' was published in Lost on Purpose by Seal Press and the first five chapters published in the anthology Goldfish from Goldsmith's College for the best writing in the last five years. Previously, Fielding's poetry has appeared in literary journals Browse and Zinc.