Shotgun Lovesongs: A Novel - Hardcover

Butler, Nickolas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250039819 ISBN 13: 9781250039811

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014

Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"Impressively original." ―The New York Times

"Sparkles in every way. A love letter to the open lonely American heartland…A must-read." ―People

"The kind of book that restores your faith in humanity." ―Toronto Star

Welcome to Little Wing.

It's a place like hundreds of others, nothing special, really. But for four friends―all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town―it is home. And now they are men, coming into their own or struggling to do so.

One of them never left, still working the family farm that has been tilled for generations. But others felt the need to move on, with varying degrees of success. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit, and one of them even hit it big as a rock star. And then there's Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives.

Now all four are brought together for a wedding. Little Wing seems even smaller than before. While lifelong bonds are still strong, there are stresses―among the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of adult friendship and love.

Seldom has the American heartland been so richly and accurately portrayed. Though the town may have changed, the one thing that hasn't is the beauty of the Wisconsin farmland, the lure of which, in Nickolas Butler's hands, emerges as a vibrant character in the story. Shotgun Lovesongs is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable book―a novel that once read will never be forgotten.

About this title

About the Author

NICKOLAS BUTLER was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His writings have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review Online, The Progressive, The Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and their two children.

Reviews

The hearty Midwest, which thrums and beats through tiny Little Wing, Wisconsin—an Anytown, USA, if there ever was one—assumes the whole soul of Butler’s fetching debut, if only to end up proving how unassuming it is. Chapters are voiced alternately by five longtime friends: there are Henry and Beth, married and tethered to their farm and kids; gold-hearted Ronny, babied by the others after a spell of rough living as a rodeo king; Kip, who’s restoring Little Wing’s decrepit old mill after pulling down millions in Chicago; and Lee, the newly successful musician whose haunting first album lends the novel its name. In bars and under stars, through this small group of those who’ve never left, those who regret leaving, and those who wish they had the town in their rearview mirror, Butler examines just what it means to be from a place—and if sharing that from-some-place is more a reason to stay in touch, or a reason not to. Readers can feel the winter cold on the other side of the neon sign and hear the peanut shells crunching underfoot. --Annie Bostrom

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250039819
• ISBN 13: 9781250039811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320