GODFORSAKEN IDAHO BY SHAWN VESTAL
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Amazon.com Review A Q&A with Shawn Vestal and Jess Walter Shawn Vestal has worked for many years as a journalist and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. His stories have appeared in McSweeney's and Tin House, among many other publications, and his new collection is Godforsaken Idaho. Jess Walter is the author of six novels, one book of short fiction, and a new story collection, We Live in Water. His most recent novel, Beautiful Ruins, was named the best book of 2012 by Esquire and NPR’s Fresh Air. JW: Let’s start with the title, Godforsaken Idaho. You grew up in Southern Idaho. How much does the setting play a part in these stories, and in you as a writer? SV: Idaho is so deeply a part of me that I probably don’t even recognize the ways it emerges in my writing. I never set out to write about the state in any direct way--but on some level, I am probably always writing about Idaho, or my childhood and family and everything else that is tied up in Idaho for me. It’s a place I love and a place that drives me crazy and, most of all, a place that I know. JW: “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death” is such a funny, original, matter-of-fact depiction of the banality of afterlife. How did that story come about? SV: I wrote the first lines with no idea of what might lie behind them: “The food is excellent. The lines are never long. There’s nothing to do with your hands. These are the first things I told my son. Then we don’t talk again for something like 200 years.” I think the voice and the story’s conceit were built into those lines, and I spent a lot of time extracting the story from them. JW: “About as Fast as This Car Will Go” has flashes of autobiography. What do you do when you a story approaches the details of your own life? SV: I usually recognize it only after the fact, strange as that may seem given how obvious some of the connections are. I never set out to write about my life, even indirectly. But I always find, through the roundabout operation of the imagination, that I’ve returned to the same few preoccupations: absent fathers, criminal fathers, regretful fathers--they’re everywhere in my fiction. Not much mystery there: My own father went to jail, and then prison, when I was a boy. Yet nothing that happens in “About as Fast” happened to me. My father committed different crimes, and my family
situation is much, much different, and I--crucially, I’d like to think--did not follow him into a life of crime. So far. JW: These stories often deal with the mythology and hypocrisy of religion, even its mystery. How did your lapsed Mormon faith figure in these stories? SV: More in the lapse than the faith, probably. Like a lot of people who have left a religion, probably, I was focused for a long time on the hypocrisy of the faithful and the failures of religion. But that is such a standard, clichéd pose--as if only the faithful are hypocritical or ignorant or deluded or weak. I wanted to write about doubters, denouncers, heretics. Though I have left the church, Mormonism is my heritage, and using the materials of Mormonism’s stories to write new ones--even stories that might seem heretical to some--became a way of keeping possession of this heritage. Review "[A] slam-dunk debut." —O Magazine "Not only is each story brilliantly constructed, but the collection as a whole is an architectural masterpiece…They’re written smartly…there’s utter brilliance…It’s terrific fiction. Vestal seems to be a writer we can trust to wake us up gorgeously to a certain angry reason, a certain subversive truth." —Association for Mormon Letters "[A] darkly provocative story collection. Throughout these well-crafted stories, Vestal’s prose captures the gritty poignancy of western life." —Seattle Times "From lustful country boys who plot against the tiny dogs carried around by beautiful out-of-town women (lapdogs, the narrator explains, are "wrong" because they make "us feel defensive about our whole lives") to two Mormons out to bring a sinner back into the fold, Vestal cracks open the dry, dusty ground and lets the weirdness spill out. It's savage and apocalyptic and endlessly funny." —The Stranger "Vestal's anti-heroes may be rascals and lost causes, but they have a canny insight, humor and wisdom that I found irresistible." —The Oregonian "I cracked open the collection by Shawn Vestal and found a short story called ‘Winter Elders,’ which grabbed me from the opening line: “They materialized with the first snow.”…This is a tale of missionary work from the perspective of the target. And it is a dark tale. It’s also psychologically astute and elegantly written, like much of Vestal’s book.” —David Haglund, Slate "[Godforsaken Idaho] lies somewhere between the classically chiseled narratives of Richard Ford’s Rock Springs, the satiristic imagination of George Saunders, and the comic stylings of The Book of Mormon. Vestal’s dark, often very funny, and deeply probing stories have one foot in God-fearing Mormon country and another in godforsaken characters-at-the-end-of-their-rope realism." —Rebecca Bengal, Vogue "These are smart, ambitious stories that bravely barrel into unwinnable arguments…Thoughtful and cleverly crafted." —Billings Gazette "Diviner, the closing tale, is as hair-raising a depiction of Mormon founder Joseph Smith as there is." —Charleston Post and Courier
"Brilliant in its world-building." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Full of believable and complex characters." —NY1 "A provocative and revelatory debut." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Godforsaken Idaho is weirdly and wildly funny, a blistering set from a writer with a far-reaching range." —LA Review of Books "Shutter your windows—Godforsaken Idaho is an awesome storm of history, grit, and revelatory imagination. These stories take huge risks and simply do not falter. Shawn Vestal has set out to reimagine the American West, and he’s done so with the soulful, single-minded purpose of a halfmad pioneer." —Patrick Somerville, author of This Bright River and The Cradle "Shawn Vestal’s Godforsaken Idaho is a wickedly funny, surprisingly profound collection. These nine stories of prophets and parents, of doppelgangers and pocket dogs, form a thrilling introduction to one of the wryest, most inventive new voices in fiction." —Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins "Godforsaken Idaho mixes the hardpan realism of Richard Ford's Rock Springs with the dreadful wonder of Dan Chaon's best stories. In the lyrical beauty of his sentences, in the brutal choices his characters must make, and in the heartbreaking landscape itself, Shawn Vestal finds startling moments of grace and unexpected redemption." —Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men "Shawn Vestal's short story collection Godforsaken Idaho is violent, full of dreamy ache. Whether it is celestial beings, father-son criminal duos, or murderous missionaries, Vestal draws vulnerable, beautifully bruised yet resilient characters." —Interview "Provocative, gritty, and highly imaginative, the stories in Shawn Vestal's Godforsaken Idaho form an impressive debut collection." —Largehearted Boy "The stories in Godforsaken Idaho are sprightful and imaginative, quirky, at times odd, employing a modern register that places them firmly within the canon of contemporary American literary fiction." —Bloom
About the Author Shawn Vestal is an Eastern Washington University alumnus. He has had stories from the collection published in Tin House, McSweeney's, and others.
GODFORSAKEN IDAHO BY SHAWN VESTAL PDF
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GODFORSAKEN IDAHO BY SHAWN VESTAL PDF
Winner of the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Named “Outstanding 2013 Collection” by The Story Prize Pushcart Prize Winner In this stunning debut, Shawn Vestal transports us to the afterlife, the rugged Northwest, and the early days of Mormonism. From “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death,” an absurd, profound vision of a hellish heaven, to "Winter Elders," in which missionaries calmly and relentlessly pursue a man who has left the fold, these nine stories illuminate the articles of faith that make us human. The concluding triptych tackles the legends and legacy of Mormonism head-on, culminating in "Diviner," a seriocomic portrait of the young Joseph Smith, back when he was not yet the founder of a religion but a man hired to find buried treasure. Godforsaken Idaho is an indelible collection by the writer you need to read next.
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Sales Rank: #876227 in Books Published on: 2013-04-02 Released on: 2013-04-02 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 8.00" h x .56" w x 5.31" l, .46 pounds Binding: Paperback 224 pages
Amazon.com Review A Q&A with Shawn Vestal and Jess Walter Shawn Vestal has worked for many years as a journalist and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. His stories have appeared in McSweeney's and Tin House, among many other publications, and his new collection is Godforsaken Idaho. Jess Walter is the author of six novels, one book of short fiction, and a new story collection, We Live in Water. His most recent novel, Beautiful Ruins, was named the best book of 2012 by Esquire and NPR’s Fresh Air. JW: Let’s start with the title, Godforsaken Idaho. You grew up in Southern Idaho. How much does the setting play a part in these stories, and in you as a writer? SV: Idaho is so deeply a part of me that I probably don’t even recognize the ways it emerges in my writing. I never set out to write about the state in any direct way--but on some level, I am probably always writing about Idaho, or my childhood and family and everything else that is tied up in Idaho
for me. It’s a place I love and a place that drives me crazy and, most of all, a place that I know. JW: “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death” is such a funny, original, matter-of-fact depiction of the banality of afterlife. How did that story come about? SV: I wrote the first lines with no idea of what might lie behind them: “The food is excellent. The lines are never long. There’s nothing to do with your hands. These are the first things I told my son. Then we don’t talk again for something like 200 years.” I think the voice and the story’s conceit were built into those lines, and I spent a lot of time extracting the story from them. JW: “About as Fast as This Car Will Go” has flashes of autobiography. What do you do when you a story approaches the details of your own life? SV: I usually recognize it only after the fact, strange as that may seem given how obvious some of the connections are. I never set out to write about my life, even indirectly. But I always find, through the roundabout operation of the imagination, that I’ve returned to the same few preoccupations: absent fathers, criminal fathers, regretful fathers--they’re everywhere in my fiction. Not much mystery there: My own father went to jail, and then prison, when I was a boy. Yet nothing that happens in “About as Fast” happened to me. My father committed different crimes, and my family situation is much, much different, and I--crucially, I’d like to think--did not follow him into a life of crime. So far. JW: These stories often deal with the mythology and hypocrisy of religion, even its mystery. How did your lapsed Mormon faith figure in these stories? SV: More in the lapse than the faith, probably. Like a lot of people who have left a religion, probably, I was focused for a long time on the hypocrisy of the faithful and the failures of religion. But that is such a standard, clichéd pose--as if only the faithful are hypocritical or ignorant or deluded or weak. I wanted to write about doubters, denouncers, heretics. Though I have left the church, Mormonism is my heritage, and using the materials of Mormonism’s stories to write new ones--even stories that might seem heretical to some--became a way of keeping possession of this heritage. Review "[A] slam-dunk debut." —O Magazine "Not only is each story brilliantly constructed, but the collection as a whole is an architectural masterpiece…They’re written smartly…there’s utter brilliance…It’s terrific fiction. Vestal seems to be a writer we can trust to wake us up gorgeously to a certain angry reason, a certain subversive truth." —Association for Mormon Letters "[A] darkly provocative story collection. Throughout these well-crafted stories, Vestal’s prose captures the gritty poignancy of western life." —Seattle Times "From lustful country boys who plot against the tiny dogs carried around by beautiful out-of-town women (lapdogs, the narrator explains, are "wrong" because they make "us feel defensive about our whole lives") to two Mormons out to bring a sinner back into the fold, Vestal cracks open the dry, dusty ground and lets the weirdness spill out. It's savage and apocalyptic and endlessly funny." —The Stranger "Vestal's anti-heroes may be rascals and lost causes, but they have a canny insight, humor and wisdom that I found irresistible." —The Oregonian
"I cracked open the collection by Shawn Vestal and found a short story called ‘Winter Elders,’ which grabbed me from the opening line: “They materialized with the first snow.”…This is a tale of missionary work from the perspective of the target. And it is a dark tale. It’s also psychologically astute and elegantly written, like much of Vestal’s book.” —David Haglund, Slate "[Godforsaken Idaho] lies somewhere between the classically chiseled narratives of Richard Ford’s Rock Springs, the satiristic imagination of George Saunders, and the comic stylings of The Book of Mormon. Vestal’s dark, often very funny, and deeply probing stories have one foot in God-fearing Mormon country and another in godforsaken characters-at-the-end-of-their-rope realism." —Rebecca Bengal, Vogue "These are smart, ambitious stories that bravely barrel into unwinnable arguments…Thoughtful and cleverly crafted." —Billings Gazette "Diviner, the closing tale, is as hair-raising a depiction of Mormon founder Joseph Smith as there is." —Charleston Post and Courier "Brilliant in its world-building." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Full of believable and complex characters." —NY1 "A provocative and revelatory debut." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Godforsaken Idaho is weirdly and wildly funny, a blistering set from a writer with a far-reaching range." —LA Review of Books "Shutter your windows—Godforsaken Idaho is an awesome storm of history, grit, and revelatory imagination. These stories take huge risks and simply do not falter. Shawn Vestal has set out to reimagine the American West, and he’s done so with the soulful, single-minded purpose of a halfmad pioneer." —Patrick Somerville, author of This Bright River and The Cradle "Shawn Vestal’s Godforsaken Idaho is a wickedly funny, surprisingly profound collection. These nine stories of prophets and parents, of doppelgangers and pocket dogs, form a thrilling introduction to one of the wryest, most inventive new voices in fiction." —Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins "Godforsaken Idaho mixes the hardpan realism of Richard Ford's Rock Springs with the dreadful wonder of Dan Chaon's best stories. In the lyrical beauty of his sentences, in the brutal choices his characters must make, and in the heartbreaking landscape itself, Shawn Vestal finds startling moments of grace and unexpected redemption." —Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men "Shawn Vestal's short story collection Godforsaken Idaho is violent, full of dreamy ache. Whether it is celestial beings, father-son criminal duos, or murderous missionaries, Vestal draws vulnerable, beautifully bruised yet resilient characters." —Interview "Provocative, gritty, and highly imaginative, the stories in Shawn Vestal's Godforsaken Idaho form an impressive debut collection." —Largehearted Boy "The stories in Godforsaken Idaho are sprightful and imaginative, quirky, at times odd, employing a modern register that places them firmly within the canon of contemporary American literary fiction." —Bloom
About the Author Shawn Vestal is an Eastern Washington University alumnus. He has had stories from the collection published in Tin House, McSweeney's, and others. Most helpful customer reviews 46 of 52 people found the following review helpful. UNFORSOOK By charles falk God may have forsaken Idaho, but Shawn Vestal has not. Born in Gooding, on the Snake River plain, Vestal now writes for the SPOKESMAN-REVIEW in Spokane WA, a scant twenty miles from the Idaho border. Five of the nine short stories in this collection take place in Idaho and two more in neighboring states of Utah and Montana. The remaining two, one set in heaven and the other in Harmony Township PA have inportant connections to Idaho. The stories are arranged in reverse chronological order. The initial story "THE FIRST SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS FOLLOWING MY DEATH" is set in 2613 and the final one, "DIVINER" begins in 1825. "DIVINER" is narrated by Isaac Hale and tells about his daughter Emma meeting and marrying Joseph Smith Jr, founder of the Mormon religion. "THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS FOLLOWING MY DEATH" describes a heaven where people remain forever the exact age at which they died. This produces some delicious ironies in Vestal's hands. The narrator was killed in a car wreck at 46, but his son, when he eventually arrives is a dementia-tinged 93. Heavendwellers can relive favorite moments in their lives on earth and most spend vast amounts of eternity doing so. A number of characters from the stories that follow play cameo roles in "THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS..." Genealogy and religion are other strands, besides geography, that bind the stories together. Vestal was raised a Mormon and that faith is entwined in his stories -- as it is with Idaho. An intricate genealogy runs through the collection, relating a character in one story to those in others. Sometimes the relationship is explicit, but sometimes is only implied through the use of common surnames. Since the stories were published in a variety of periodicals over at least eight years, one wonders what Vestal is up to with his fictional family trees and odd order to the stories. The title story, strangely enough, shares no religious or genealogical links to the rest of the collection. The narrator, whose name we never learn, recently moved from Chicago to northern Idaho to get away from his stroke-afflicted mother. His most treasured possession is his collection of PENTHOUSE MAGAZINE, which becomes an issue between him and his nosy landlord. Vestal's male narrators are a generally disreputable lot: unbelievers, hard drinkers, womanizers, ne'er-do-wells, and, occasionally, criminals. The women around them are better only by comparison. Sarah Warren, the narrator of "THE GULLS", and ancestress to many of Vestal's other characters, is the exception. Readers with no connection to and little interest in Idaho, genealogy, or the Mormon faith may still find pleasure in these stories. They offer few glimpses of leaping trout, scenic lakes, or snowcapped mountains, but are beautifully crafted. "WINTER ELDERS" (about Mormon missionaries) begins, "They materialized with the first snow." These stories are about people -- and what an odd bunch they are! 34 of 38 people found the following review helpful. Haunting, Exquisite Tales By Louis N. Gruber A collection of nine stories, mostly set in remote, rural Idaho, tales about troubled and difficult people. Men and women who struggle with questions of faith and doubt, righteousness and wickedness, reality and fantasy. Most of the characters are Mormons, walking a fine, shaky line
between doubt and fanaticism. Their lives don't go well, they don't find the answers they yearn for, and they rarely find release from their private hells. The first story is a fanciful exploration of life after death. Another deals with a young man who goes quietly crazy while working in a tiny rural post office. Yet another recounts a plague of locusts, yet another, set in 1825, portrays the early days of Mormonism. The stories are dark, haunting, deeply troubling, and beautifully written. Author Shawn Vestal writes in a lucid, accessible manner, without a single wasted word. The tales draw you in and leave you wanting more. You want to like these characters, you want them to find some redemption, and you care about them even when they don't. These are exquisite stories. I wish I'd written them myself. I recommend this collection most highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber. 25 of 27 people found the following review helpful. Excellent Story Collection - read it! By FrannyG This is an excellent collection of really great stories. I'd like to say I'm confused by the bad reviews, but sadly I'm not. I think we all know these folks either haven't read the book or have serious issues with the title alone. Also, it seems at least one of the reviewers is around 6 years old. It seems pretty obvious, but does everyone understand that this is NOT a non-fiction account of Mormonism in Idaho? This is fiction. This is a book of short stories. One reviewer said the first story (my favorite) was "Apparently Vestal's idea of Heaven," well...um...maybe, or could it possibly be just a really interesting STORY?! Sure, most good writers draw from their experiences in life, and part of Vestal's life includes being raised Mormon in Idaho, but there is nothing in this book that should offend you if you are a reader of good literature. Some of the stories make you think, some make you cringe or laugh, all of the things I look for in a great book. Truly interesting reading and hard to put down. Just buy the book. You won't be sorry. I do have to admit some of the "bad" reviews made me chuckle. "the author has no tallent anf has done no reaearch" and my favorite: "it is retarded" Classic. See all 132 customer reviews...
GODFORSAKEN IDAHO BY SHAWN VESTAL PDF
We discuss you also the method to get this book Godforsaken Idaho By Shawn Vestal without going to the book establishment. You can remain to visit the web link that we supply and also ready to download Godforsaken Idaho By Shawn Vestal When many people are busy to look for fro in guide store, you are extremely simple to download the Godforsaken Idaho By Shawn Vestal here. So, exactly what else you will opt for? Take the motivation here! It is not just offering the ideal book Godforsaken Idaho By Shawn Vestal but likewise the best book collections. Here we constantly provide you the most effective and also easiest method. Amazon.com Review A Q&A with Shawn Vestal and Jess Walter Shawn Vestal has worked for many years as a journalist and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. His stories have appeared in McSweeney's and Tin House, among many other publications, and his new collection is Godforsaken Idaho. Jess Walter is the author of six novels, one book of short fiction, and a new story collection, We Live in Water. His most recent novel, Beautiful Ruins, was named the best book of 2012 by Esquire and NPR’s Fresh Air. JW: Let’s start with the title, Godforsaken Idaho. You grew up in Southern Idaho. How much does the setting play a part in these stories, and in you as a writer? SV: Idaho is so deeply a part of me that I probably don’t even recognize the ways it emerges in my writing. I never set out to write about the state in any direct way--but on some level, I am probably always writing about Idaho, or my childhood and family and everything else that is tied up in Idaho for me. It’s a place I love and a place that drives me crazy and, most of all, a place that I know. JW: “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death” is such a funny, original, matter-of-fact depiction of the banality of afterlife. How did that story come about? SV: I wrote the first lines with no idea of what might lie behind them: “The food is excellent. The lines are never long. There’s nothing to do with your hands. These are the first things I told my son. Then we don’t talk again for something like 200 years.” I think the voice and the story’s conceit were built into those lines, and I spent a lot of time extracting the story from them. JW: “About as Fast as This Car Will Go” has flashes of autobiography. What do you do when you a story approaches the details of your own life? SV: I usually recognize it only after the fact, strange as that may seem given how obvious some of the connections are. I never set out to write about my life, even indirectly. But I always find, through the roundabout operation of the imagination, that I’ve returned to the same few preoccupations: absent fathers, criminal fathers, regretful fathers--they’re everywhere in my fiction. Not much mystery there: My own father went to jail, and then prison, when I was a boy. Yet nothing that happens in “About as Fast” happened to me. My father committed different crimes, and my family situation is much, much different, and I--crucially, I’d like to think--did not follow him into a life of crime. So far.
JW: These stories often deal with the mythology and hypocrisy of religion, even its mystery. How did your lapsed Mormon faith figure in these stories? SV: More in the lapse than the faith, probably. Like a lot of people who have left a religion, probably, I was focused for a long time on the hypocrisy of the faithful and the failures of religion. But that is such a standard, clichéd pose--as if only the faithful are hypocritical or ignorant or deluded or weak. I wanted to write about doubters, denouncers, heretics. Though I have left the church, Mormonism is my heritage, and using the materials of Mormonism’s stories to write new ones--even stories that might seem heretical to some--became a way of keeping possession of this heritage. Review "[A] slam-dunk debut." —O Magazine "Not only is each story brilliantly constructed, but the collection as a whole is an architectural masterpiece…They’re written smartly…there’s utter brilliance…It’s terrific fiction. Vestal seems to be a writer we can trust to wake us up gorgeously to a certain angry reason, a certain subversive truth." —Association for Mormon Letters "[A] darkly provocative story collection. Throughout these well-crafted stories, Vestal’s prose captures the gritty poignancy of western life." —Seattle Times "From lustful country boys who plot against the tiny dogs carried around by beautiful out-of-town women (lapdogs, the narrator explains, are "wrong" because they make "us feel defensive about our whole lives") to two Mormons out to bring a sinner back into the fold, Vestal cracks open the dry, dusty ground and lets the weirdness spill out. It's savage and apocalyptic and endlessly funny." —The Stranger "Vestal's anti-heroes may be rascals and lost causes, but they have a canny insight, humor and wisdom that I found irresistible." —The Oregonian "I cracked open the collection by Shawn Vestal and found a short story called ‘Winter Elders,’ which grabbed me from the opening line: “They materialized with the first snow.”…This is a tale of missionary work from the perspective of the target. And it is a dark tale. It’s also psychologically astute and elegantly written, like much of Vestal’s book.” —David Haglund, Slate "[Godforsaken Idaho] lies somewhere between the classically chiseled narratives of Richard Ford’s Rock Springs, the satiristic imagination of George Saunders, and the comic stylings of The Book of Mormon. Vestal’s dark, often very funny, and deeply probing stories have one foot in God-fearing Mormon country and another in godforsaken characters-at-the-end-of-their-rope realism." —Rebecca Bengal, Vogue "These are smart, ambitious stories that bravely barrel into unwinnable arguments…Thoughtful and cleverly crafted." —Billings Gazette "Diviner, the closing tale, is as hair-raising a depiction of Mormon founder Joseph Smith as there is." —Charleston Post and Courier "Brilliant in its world-building." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Full of believable and complex characters." —NY1
"A provocative and revelatory debut." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Godforsaken Idaho is weirdly and wildly funny, a blistering set from a writer with a far-reaching range." —LA Review of Books "Shutter your windows—Godforsaken Idaho is an awesome storm of history, grit, and revelatory imagination. These stories take huge risks and simply do not falter. Shawn Vestal has set out to reimagine the American West, and he’s done so with the soulful, single-minded purpose of a halfmad pioneer." —Patrick Somerville, author of This Bright River and The Cradle "Shawn Vestal’s Godforsaken Idaho is a wickedly funny, surprisingly profound collection. These nine stories of prophets and parents, of doppelgangers and pocket dogs, form a thrilling introduction to one of the wryest, most inventive new voices in fiction." —Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins "Godforsaken Idaho mixes the hardpan realism of Richard Ford's Rock Springs with the dreadful wonder of Dan Chaon's best stories. In the lyrical beauty of his sentences, in the brutal choices his characters must make, and in the heartbreaking landscape itself, Shawn Vestal finds startling moments of grace and unexpected redemption." —Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men "Shawn Vestal's short story collection Godforsaken Idaho is violent, full of dreamy ache. Whether it is celestial beings, father-son criminal duos, or murderous missionaries, Vestal draws vulnerable, beautifully bruised yet resilient characters." —Interview "Provocative, gritty, and highly imaginative, the stories in Shawn Vestal's Godforsaken Idaho form an impressive debut collection." —Largehearted Boy "The stories in Godforsaken Idaho are sprightful and imaginative, quirky, at times odd, employing a modern register that places them firmly within the canon of contemporary American literary fiction." —Bloom
About the Author Shawn Vestal is an Eastern Washington University alumnus. He has had stories from the collection published in Tin House, McSweeney's, and others.
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