American Salvage is a collection of short stories by author Bonnie Jo Campbell that revolve around the decaying economic state of a rural America seemingly forgotten by the masses. The tales are grungy, grimy, and showcase the lives of human beings caught in vicious cycles of drugs, poverty, and fractured relationships.
The concept behind the system is inspired by a line posed at the end of the collection’s titular story in which human beings are compared to catalytic converters.