Desperation Road
By (Author) Michael Farris Smith
Bedford Square Publishers
No Exit Press
23rd February 2017
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
813/.6
Hardback
288
Width 153mm, Height 234mm
After completing an 11 year jail sentence, Russell Gaines believes his debt to society has been paid. But when he returns home, he discovers that revenge lives and breathes all around him. Meanwhile, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate. Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a room for the night, a night that ends with Maben holding a pistol and a dead deputy. With the dawn, destinies collide, and Russell is forced to decide whose life he will save - his own or those of the woman and child.
This is just stunning ... Little short of perfection ... Think Daniel Woodrell, Bill Beverly and Lou Berney for starters and that will give you an idea of the style, the range and the humanity of the novel -- Graham Minett, author of The Hidden Legacy
A harsh but beautiful thriller that has you cheering under your breath for its wounded, fallible protagonist throughout -- Maxim Jakubowski * LoveReading *
Flickers with poetic splendour... Repetitions, the falling cadences of country music, phrases strung together in long passages of sustained beauty: it's rare for desperation to be rendered with such intensity -- Jeff Noon * Spectator *
a wonderfully evoked and deeply touching work -- Doug Johnstone * The Big Issue *
Michael Farris Smith's prose focuses on small details and has a rhythm that gives it a poetic quality; a comparison with Annie Proulx is not overly enthusiastic -- Chris Roberts * Crime Review *
Michael Farris Smith is the award-winning author ofSalvage This World,NICK,Blackwood,The Fighter,Desperation Road,Rivers, andThe Hands of Strangers.Hisnovels have appeared on Best of the Year lists withEsquire,NPR,Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Book Riotand numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has also written the feature-film adaptations of his novelsDesperation RoadandThe Fighter,titled for the screen asRumbleThrough the Dark.He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.