The Hoards of Torment

When single-father Jack Henry accompanies his girlfriend to reunite with her beloved third-grade schoolteacher, they are stunned to find Ms. Lyon gravely ill and completely degenerated by years of hoarding. Unwittingly, Jack is enlisted to help save her, and in the process of getting to know Ms. Lyon and the depths of her disease, Jack is forced to confront the image of himself smeared across the hoard, destroying his illusion that he can keep his own alcoholism and tormented childhood separate from his two daughters. Finally, as their attempts to help Ms. Lyon fail and Jack’s life begins to crumble around him, he realizes that he’s not just trying to save Ms. Lyon—he’s trying to save himself, and his kids. In his polarizing debut novel, William R. Hincy compels us to care for characters who no longer make messes—they have become the mess. Exquisitely portrayed, the conflict between Jack’s love for his children and his self-hatred creates a palpable tension that winds tighter and tighter before snapping at the book’s unforgettable climax. The Hoards of Torment is a mesmerizing novel, brimming with profound sorrow and transcendent prose, where what it means to suffer and what it means to be a father are transformed by the backdrop of the inevitable conclusion of the American Dream—a grotesque hoard.