Description

The stories in this collection nearly all take place in and around the mountain hollows of West Virginia: a world of cock-fighting, coal-mining, deer-stalking, sex, depression, drinking and death.

‘It would be easy to allow his one collection of stories to be buried under the landslide of books published every year. But it’s worth doing a little excavating to dig it up. The past few years have seen late-in-the-day and posthumous revivals of interest in writers such … John Williams. Get out your pickaxes’
New Yorker

Breece D’J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading – Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

Publisher Review

Impressive -- Philip Maughan * New Statesman * By any standards, [the story "Trilobites"] is a masterpiece; that it is an artistic debut is astonishing... To say that Breece D'J Pancake is not well enough known is a massive understatement... Quite simply, a literary genius -- John Burnside * Guardian * Haunting brilliance -- John Dugdale * Literary Review * [Pancake's] words...combined with an unsparing vision of humanity create the spine-tingling sense that you're reading an original -- Max Liu * Independent * Simple, rich with dialogue and precious -- Anna Fielding * Stylist * Muscular, precise, lyric and unforgettable... Utterly singular -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * This is an exceptional voice; gritty, mordant, invested with the texture of stroked reality; urgent and haunting * Margaret Atwood * Breece D'J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading * Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds * The best, most sincere writer I've ever read -- Kurt Vonnegut