Christopher Swann's "Never Go Home"

Christopher Swann is a novelist and high school English teacher. A graduate of Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, he earned his Ph.D. in creative writing from Georgia State University. He has been a Townsend Prize finalist, longlisted for the Southern Book Prize, and a winner of the Georgia Author of the Year award. He lives with his wife and two sons in Atlanta, where he is the English department chair at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School.

Here Swann dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Never Go Home:

Never Go Home is the story of Susannah “Suzie” Faulkner, the survivor of a home invasion that leaves her orphaned when she is ten and her brother Ethan is thirteen. Ethan grows up a bit closed off in his personal life, protective of his privacy and his history, but otherwise he seems to have a good life—he has a house, a dog, and a job he loves as a teacher. Suzie, by contrast, is angry and vengeful, and as a teenager decides she is going to hunt down and kill the man who shot her parents. In my first Faulkner family thriller, Suzie finally confronts that man. That situation resolved, Suzie now has to figure out what to do with the rest of her life, with a skill set that includes skip tracing, firearms, and martial arts. At the start of Never Go Home, she is working to find a missing teenage girl, but when her brother reaches out to her, she flies home to Atlanta to find her uncle in the hospital and a dangerous figure from her father’s past lurking in the shadows, threatening what family she has left.

I tend to write scenes you can visualize fairly easily, so I love the idea of Never Go Home as a movie. Or a miniseries on a streaming service. I’m not picky.

Suzie is a glorious hot mess of a character who struggles with her mental stability and reacts quickly and violently to any perceived injustice or cruelty. She is extremely smart but impulsive, fierce and flawed. She is also sexually fluid, attracted to both men and women. Any actor would need to capture all those traits along with her general quirkiness and occasional active ignorance of social norms. Florence Pugh with dark hair would be a fantastic Suzie. Hailee Steinfeld would be a close second, although Pugh seems like she could more easily pull off Suzie’s darker side.

Suzie’s Uncle Gavin, an Atlanta underworld figure, is from Ireland, and he looms large in Suzie’s life as her guardian after the deaths of her parents. Colin Farrell is a bit young but has the range to play Gavin’s cold and tender sides. Brendan Gleeson might be perfect, though—he has that cantankerous look down pat, and while he can be warm, he can easily summon up flashes of menace.

Suzie’s friend Caesar? Avery Brooks forty years ago. Mike Colter could pull it off—in his newest film, I’m Charlie Walker, with his shaved head he looks like Caesar.

Finn, the antagonist? Walton Goggins is as cool and cold as they come as a villain.

Ethan, Suzie’s brother? He’s a ginger, but Timothée Chalamet would be great.

And a director? I’d love someone who can direct an action movie while also doing the characters justice—both are equally important. Right now, Taylor Sheridan might be that director, especially if he could do what he did in Wind River. Denis Villeneuve would be fantastic as well. (Hey, dream big.)

Visit Christopher Swann's website.

The Page 69 Test: Never Go Home.

--Marshal Zeringue