Our Previous Books

Round Mountain, by Castle Freeman Jr.

In the backwoods towns of Round Mountain, time circles like a mountain road. Friends disappear and show up again, older if not wiser. Small incidents—a night of drinking, a robbery, a strange visitor from Canada—loom larger as the decades pass. And over time, the true colors of every man, woman, and child become known to all. Nothing escapes the clear eye of Castle Freeman, Jr., a meticulous master storyteller who knows his territory. Lean and razor-sharp, these dozen stories pack more in Round Mountain than a novel ten times as long.

A Handbook of American Prayer, by Lucius Shepard

In his fascinating, hilarious, and disturbing novel, award-winning author Lucius Shepard examines the power of prayer in a way no minister ever expected. Wardlin Stuart, ex-bartender and murderer, stumbles across a way of praying that actually works. Calling it prayerstyle, Stuart becomes a cult hero with millions of followers. But he can’t bring himself to take advantage of his newfound fame and riches—or escape them. Then the mysterious Lord of Loneliness creeps in with plans of his own. Resonating with the best of Nathanael West, Herman Melville, and David Foster Wallace, A Handbook of American Prayer is a profound, moving novel lit by the sputtering spotlight of fame.

Rut, by Scott Philips

Rut takes readers to the Rocky Mountains circa 2050, when the once-thriving burg of Gower is about to become a 21st-century ghost town. Thanks to  extreme weather and plenty of toxic waste, the skiers and celebrities are gone, along with the money and the veneer of civilization. What’s left? Old-time religion and brand-new pharmaceuticals, bad food and warm beer, mutated animals and small-town gossip. Can the town survive? Read Rut and see.

IOU: New Writing on Money, edited by Ron Slate

IOU is a fascinating multi-genre book on the theme of money—good, bad, and otherwise. It includes work from Jonathan Ames, Augusten Burroughs, Mark Doty, Dolly Freed, Castle Freeman Jr., Michael Greenberg, Tony Hoagland, Michelle Huneven, Robert Pinsky, Jess Row, Mona Simpson, and 50+ top-shelf writers, poets, and bank robbers. These diverse voices have a lot to say about money. You'll see. 

The Next Queen of Heaven, by Gregory Maguire

Set in the grotty upstate town of Thebes, The Next Queen of Heaven is a Christmas tale gone horribly wrong. Clocked by a Catholic statuette, Mrs. Leontina Scales starts speaking in tongues. Tabitha Scales and her brothers scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus—whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K. Only a modern master like Gregory Maguire can spin a tale this frantic, funny, and farcical. Novelist Ann Patchett calls it “an out-of-control carnival ride—terrifying, thrilling, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.” And we agree. Now out in a commercial edition from HarperCollins.

Push Comes to Shove, by Wesley Brown

As the turbulent Sixties draw to a close, police kill Walter Armstead with a shotgun blast to the face. Was Armstead an innocent victim of violent times or a police collaborator? The question haunts the members of the radical activist group Push Comes to Shove for years. This powerful novel from Wesley Brown—acclaimed novelist (Darktown Strutters, Tragic Magic), educator, and former Black Panther—follows a tight-knit group of revolutionaries, lovers, and dreamers as they come to terms with their past and struggle through the Seventies and beyond. Some compromise. Some stay true to their ideals. Others die trying.

Give + Take, by Stona Fitch

The novel that inspired the Concord Free Press! Ross Clifton is a brilliant jazz pianist—and an even more talented thief. He steals millions of dollars in diamonds and BMWs and gives all the money away to people in need. But his life as a latter-day Robin Hood is about to come to an abrupt end as he approaches the outer limits of generosity and faces his demons. Fast, funny, and felonious, Give and Take takes you on an economic shakedown cruise. Now out in a commercial edition from St. Martin's Press.