ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • The dark, gripping tale of a 1930’s family in the remote hills of the Smoky Mountains, their secret religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their mysterious god—from the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders. “Gods and moonshine in the Great Depression, written with a tenderness and brutality … this is as good as novels get.” —Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. The mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy. Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella—now a professional bootlegger—returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted. Sunny appears innocent enough, but she is more powerful than Stella could imagine—and she’s a direct link to Stella's buried past and her family's destructive faith. Haunting and wholly engrossing, summoning mesmerizing voices and giving shape to the dark, Revelator is a southern gothic tale for the ages.

Suffused with family secrets, eerie imagery, black humor, and hypnotic prose, this astounding debut grapples with the pull between friendship and betrayal.272 pp.

Two thieves seek a valuable prize from within the kingdom’s Museum of History. But what they find there is more than they bargained for. Revelator is a short fantasy story.

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.

Revelator: a uniquely exciting narrative. The author, posing as the Apostle John, makes the Revelation text come alive. The synthesis of fiction, history, and verse make Revelator a fascinating read.

John, a young transgender, tries to find God and make it through his coming-of-age alive.

“Murphy’s darkly gorgeous debut . . . is an Irish coming-of-age novel. It’s also a meditation on why we tell stories.” —The Plain Dealer This is the story of John Devine—stuck in a small town in the otherworldly landscape of southeastern Ireland, worried over by his single, chain-smoking, Bible-quoting mother, Lily, and spied on by the “neighborly” Mrs. Nagle. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town, John’s life suddenly seems full of possibility. His loneliness dissipates. He is taken up by mischief and discovery, hiding in the world beyond as Lily’s mysterious illness worsens. But Jamey and John’s nose for trouble may be their undoing, and soon John will be faced with a terrible moral dilemma. Joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal—A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha—John the Revelator is “remarkable” and grapples with the pull of the world and the hold of those we love (The Observer). “Murphy’s strongly written debut splits the difference between the sensitivity of Portrait of an Artist and the freakishness of Butcher Boy.” —Publishers Weekly “Jaw-dropping . . . A terrific, disquieting addition to the long tradition of Irish storytelling.” —Kirkus Reviews