Danuta Gleed Literary Award runnerup A line-dancing aficionado visits his brother in jail in hopes of mending their relationship, and instead discovers his own unwitting role in his brother's failed life. After the death of his wife and children, a logger tries to survive the Thanksgiving weekend on his own. A delinquent teen's life is changed forever by a work-camp placement with a violent older boy. A truck driver seeks sanctuary from his abusive wife in a fantasy world of strip clubs and personal ads. Bristling with restlessness and brutality, the eight linked stories in Bull Head catapult readers into the gritty lives of social outcasts lost in purgatories of their own making. John Vigna tempers raw and at times cruel rural masculinity with graceful prose and breathtaking tenderness to illuminate the plight of men living in small towns and backwoods who belong neither to history nor the future. A startling homage to the great Southern Gothic tradition, Bull Head is a dazzling debut that heralds a powerful and exciting new literary voice. From Bull Head:The night bled in around him. He drove to the gravel turnoff where the main artery led toward the dull lights of town. In his rearview, brake lights blazed a trail behind him. He took his foot off the brake, turned and accelerated, kept his eyes on the road as it unfurled a few yards ahead in the white wash of the headlights. The wilderness rushed towards him in the glow, trees flashed past like an ancient chorus in a cold cathedral, the car swerved on gravel, peppering the undercarriage, the dust obliterated the road behind. He slammed the gas pedal to the floor; the cruel rush of night air blasted his face. The fuel light flashed red. He turned off the headlights, and sped faster, the wind screaming in his ears as he lifted his hands off the steering wheel and hurtled through the darkness. | Bull Head by John Vigna, Paperback | Indigo Chapters