BENEATH THE BONFIRE Stories

In the title piece of this debut story collection, the main characters participate in a breathtakingly crazy rite of passage: They build a bonfire on a frozen Wisconsin lake, cut a hole in the ice, and then scuba dive in the thick, dark waters below. It’s a perfect metaphor for Nickolas Butler’s relentless search for the damaged psyche of an elusive contemporary American Midwest. With the vocal rhythms of characters who own broke-down pickups and chase out-of-season deer across stubbled fields, narrator Holter Graham gives voice to the bitter and tough sounds of deferred dreams and plots of revenge as well as the painful hopes that inhabit these carefully woven tales. In this collection one hears a new strong voice in American fiction. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2015]