Category: Books
Very Fine People by Scott Gannis
Very Fine People
Scott Gannis
308 pages
ISBN: 978-1941918753
Release Date: October 2, 2020
Fiction/Literature/Politics
It’s Fall 2016 in flyover country and Jude Glick’s mother has just died after a long battle with cancer, leaving behind a house in foreclosure, tens of thousands in medical debt, and compounding psychological trauma. Already a struggling standup comic and museum security guard, Jude thinks his life can’t get any more humiliating. But poverty and institutional cruelty find new ways to grind him down-and beat him up-just as his childhood bully, Stephen Scheisskopf, becomes a household name as propaganda minister for a proto-fascist Presidential candidate. When this unnamed nominee improbably wins the election and Scheisskopf transforms the Glick family story into a partisan political symbol, Jude can’t take it anymore and finally inflicts himself on the people, and country, he hates. Alternating between raw emotionalism, cutting satire, and wild flights of imagination, Gannis’s brilliant debut novel builds to an unforeseen and shattering climax.
Heck, Texas by Tex Gresham
NOW AVAILABLE
Heck, Texas
Tex Gresham
140 pages
ISBN: 978-1-941918-66-1
Release date: September 4, 2020
Fiction/Literature/Art
The Atlatl Press Store
Bookshop.org
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Powell’s
“This is a very unruly book, in the best sense of the word, and it only coincides with the breakdown of literary standards we are witnessing now . . . [This] book will not have an easy life, but rather a long one, as the anger in it is part of the mood of our times.”—Werner Herzog, Director of Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man
“This book is trash.”—Joel Potrykus, Director of Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook, and Relaxer
“Moby Dick in 21st century Texas . . . fragments—some grimly realistic, some grimly absurd, some grimly satirical, some downright disgusting—skillfully capture the essence of a trashy Texas town. Nothing at all like Winesburg, Ohio, this collage text reveals things you probably already knew but wish you didn’t. Somewhere between Eraserhead and [Linklater’s] Slacker, Heck, Texas pursues the white whale of post-apocalyptic mediocrity, and Tex Gresham has just the right kind of deadpan dark humor to make the story he’s not quite telling work brilliantly. What’s it like to suffer from reality sickness? Read this book and find out.”—Stephen-Paul Martin, Author of Changing the Subject and The Ace of Lightning
Somewhere deep in East Texas, the hunt is on, fueled by self-hate, cough syrup, white whales, massive zits, freakshows, madness, dead pets, lost children, killer coffee, rats, Satan, good times, bad people, vomit, dementia, diarrhea, sex, and clowns. Your favorite brand of disease is back in stock. Welcome to Heck, Texas.
Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison
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Along the Path of Torment
Chandler Morrison
254 pages
ISBN: 978-1-941918-69-2
Release date: August 28th, 2020
Fiction/Literature/Horror
Paperback:
The Atlatl Press Store
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop.org
Powell’s
Kindle
“Chandler Morrison is one of the most visceral and uncompromising writers of his generation . . .”
—Donald Ray Pollock, Author of The Devil All the Time
Ty Seward is a sick man. Anorexic, sexually aberrant, and haunted by a ghostly apparition residing in his closet. Living in the shadow of an in-remission cancer he fully expects to return, Ty bitterly earns his meager living by working as an assistant to his uncle, a business-and-media mogul who runs a lucrative prostitution ring catering to the Hollywood elite. When Ty’s line of work introduces him to a precocious teenage girl who seems to possess a shrewdly keen insight into his inner machinations, he is forced to confront his hidden demons and repressed trauma, embarking on a bleak and harrowing odyssey of self-discovery in the decomposing City of Angels.
Advance Praise for Along the Path of Torment
“Along the Path of Torment is a brutal, stylish, and compelling book, with moments of surprising tenderness. Morrison dials up the noir and writes his characters with careful attention to what haunts them. Like a Bret Easton Ellis novel that refuses to fetishize the toxic glamor of LA and its shadow worlds, Along the Path of Torment is memorable and intriguing.”
—Lindsay Lerman, Author of I’m From Nowhere
“Chandler Morrison’s most disturbing book yet (and that’s saying something!), packed with loathsome characters, cancerous truths, and all-too-plausible Hollywood sleaze.”
—Christine Morgan, Author of Lakehouse Infernal
Along the Path of Torment is a masterful odyssey of Hollywood decadence and depravity, an unflinching and often morbidly hilarious plunge into the void as Chandler Morrison explores the harsh truths of power in an increasingly soulless and decaying world.
—Ryan Harding, author of Genital Grinder
The Joyful Mysteries by Pam Jones
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The Joyful Mysteries
Pam Jones
216 pages
ISBN: 978-1-941918-76-0
Paperback:
Atlatl Press Store
Amazon
Bookshop
Barnes and Noble
Fiction/Literature
“Lyrical and ethereal and full of literary allusions, The Joyful Mysteries probes mental health and identity and the ways in which we make and remake ourselves.”—Tomas Moniz, author of Big Familia, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel and the Lambda Award
ET leaves a state hospital without name or address, moved by a distinct notion, or idea, or feeling, or delusion, or revelation. Her latest comes to her in a dream, wherein she is told she is with child. With two fellow hospital discharges, she follows vague perceptions that appear to be from on high, leading her to a dilapidated flop-house, where her notion is made flesh. Enter Enda, a thirteen-year-old runaway who is destined to have an audience. He observes and remembers and makes stories of what he sees and learns in a comedic career that comes to posthumous fruition.
Distant Hills by Lydia Unsworth
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Distant Hills
Lydia Unsworth
154 pages
ISBN: 978-1-941918-73-9
Paperback:
The Atlatl Press Store
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop.org
Kindle
Fiction/Literature/Poetry/Travel
“A small tasty novel whose events bend language into thrilling shapes . . .”
—Ed Garland, author of Earwitness
Leaving behind the familiar hills of England, X makes for Europe with just her 75-litre backpack. She’s determined to find loneliness. And she does, sublimely on a new hilltop or painfully in a tone of disconnection. But she also finds companionship and separations. It is by committing herself to new people, new wilds, and new homes that X explores inner expanses. This is reflected in Unsworth’s outward-looking prose, which captures both fibrous detail and planetary speeds and motions. Unsworth’s debut novel is a testament to the versatility of language and of the human spirit.
Murder House by C.V. Hunt
NOW AVAILABLE
Murder House
C.V. Hunt
128 pages
ISBN: 978-1-941918-67-8
Paperback and Kindle
Fiction/Literature/Horror
It’s not the house you should be afraid of, it’s the people who live there.
Laura’s boyfriend, Brent, is an author and he’s writing a true crime book about the Hallows’ Eve Massacre. The publisher has given Brent a tight deadline and the opportunity to stay in the house where the massacre took place. But the basement creeps Laura out and she’s left questioning her sanity after she sees things that may or may not be there. When Brent begins to act strange, Laura writes it off to the pressure of his deadline. Is Laura really losing her mind or is there something in the house that’s changing the couple?
Impossible Driveways by Justin Grimbol
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Impossible Driveways
Justin Grimbol
156 pages
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1941918388
This book is about Vermont, anxiety, working and marriage.
Giraffe Carcass by J. Peter W.
NOW AVAILABLE
Giraffe Carcass
J. Peter W.
176 Pages
Paperback and Ebook
ISBN: 978-1941918340
Lacey lost her mother to cancer. Now, Lacey and her father are just trying to survive the sadness overwhelming their house. Neither one is coping well. When it feels like things can’t get much worse, a dead giraffe appears in their backyard. They call the police to dispose of the carcass. The following day another giraffe appears, also dead. Every day, it’s another rotting giraffe.The police and neighbors all think the father, Richard, is to blame. He is, after all, walking around with his dead wife’s urn, talking to it like she can hear him. Lacey isn’t so sure. She knows her dad might be losing it, but thinks the weird, old lady who’s always warning about the zombie apocalypse could be involved. Together, Lacey and Richard need to figure out how to make this rain of giraffe carcasses stop before the strain of this surreal nightmare shatters whatever hope they have left.
Shining the Light by A.S. Coomer
Shining the Light
A.S. Coomer
168 Pages
Paperback and Ebook
ISBN: 978-1941918296
There is a light and there is a darkness. There is, also, a space in between. Homer Antumbra inhabited this no-man’s-land. In his flickering flame of a life, he shined the light and lived with the darkness. His life and work changed the craft of songwriting, both showing what a song could be and hinting at where it could go. His work redefined a genre before shattering any attempts at categorization. Shining the Light is the first in-depth look into the man, the myth, the music of Homer Antumbra, ensuring the light still shines.
Hold for Release Until the End of the World by C.V. Hunt
Hold for Release Until the End of the World
C.V. Hunt
Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
112 pages
ISBN: 978-1941918272
This is the last thing you’ll ever see.
Welcome to Daxton. The neighbor is crazy. The roommate is running a perpetual scam. Being degraded by the boss on a daily basis is part of the job. The children are willingly abducted. The probability of getting shot while purchasing groceries is high. And don’t forget to fill your quota of junk strategically placed in your yard to be viewed from the street.
Why would you want to live anywhere else?
ATLATL PRESS 