An absolute gem of a book, So Long See You Tomorrow by Willam Maxwell had never been on my radar of books to read until I stumbled upon it in a scantily stocked airport bookstore. It’s a novel of two loosely connected stories: the narrator who looks back at his childhood in Lincoln, Illinois and the devastating loss of his mother and the parallel tragedy of his friend Cletus’ family. Maxwell’s evocative yet sparse writing is nothing short of genius.

So Long, See You Tomorrow starts with a murder. A farmer called Lloyd Wilson is shot, point blank, while milking his cows. Everyone seems to know who did it, and we’ll learn why in the course of the novel.

Fifty years later, our nameless narrator (there are definite autobiographical elements to this novel) is obsessed with getting to the bottom of this story, partially out of a feeling of guilt but also to understand his own childhood better. Based on newspaper articles and an unreliable memory, Maxwell pieces together the story and lets his imagination fill the gaps. What he finds is this.

Escaping troubles at home, the narrator and Cletus bump into each other while playing at the building site of the narrator’s new home.  Not much is said, but there’s no need to; they are 13-year-old boys. The narrator has just lost his beloved mum to the Spanish flu and his father had sunk down into a deep depression. The grief that Maxwell describes is heart wrenching and could only have been written by someone in the know.

‘Between the way things used to be and the way they were now was a void that couldn’t be crossed’

The narrator’s and Cletus’ innocent friendship crumbles when Lloyd Wilson is shot. What subsequently happens to Cletus’ family will change his life forever and make him, through no fault of his own, a pariah in Lincoln and test our narrator’s loyalty. I won’t say more as that will ruin the book, but trust me when I say it will be worth it.

In a mere 152 pages, Maxwell packs in gorgeous descriptions of farmland America, grief, memory, guilt, friendship and marriage. And to top it all off, an adorable dog, who is as alive as any human in this novel. A great read.

So Long See You Tomorrow by Willam Maxwell is published by Vintage Classics, 152 pages.