What do a trigger-happy bootlegger with pancreatic cancer, an alcoholic helicopter pilot who is afraid to fly, and a dead man with his feet in a camp stove have in common?
What are the similarities between a fire department that cannot put out fires, a policeman who has an historic cabin fall on him from out of the sky, and an entire family dedicated to a variety of deceased authors?
Where can you find a war hero named Termite with a long knife stuck in his liver, a cook named Hoghead who makes the world's worst coffee, and a supervisor named Pillsbury who nearly gets hung by his employees?
The answers to these questions can be found in Sequoyah, Georgia, the home of A.J. Longstreet and his lifelong friend and sometime adversary, Eugene Purdue. Share in the relationship between these two men as they experience Eugene's final days. Observe their friendship as they explore the concepts of fidelity, brotherhood, mortality, and euthanasia from a decidedly Southern perspective.
Take this gripping journey to North Georgia and witness A.J.'s inner struggles as he confronts the realities of Eugene's impending demise. Accompany A.J. on his journeys to the past as he revisits the people and places who made him what he is. And join him as he makes the decision that will alter his life forever.
The Front Porch Prophet
Raymond L. Atkins
ISBN# 1933836385
ISBN# 9781933836386
Hardcover
US $25.95 / CDN $28.95
Fiction
Raymond L. Atkins
THE FRONT PORCH PROPHET is a fine piece of southern fiction—by turns poignant and hilarious. Atkins knows his front porches; the rustics who inhabit his novel are real people who walk right off the page, but he's also had some book learning...in the rich, lucid prose, one finds moments of breathtaking elegance.
With a knack for storytelling, a sly sense of humor, and a Faulkneresque sensibility, Ray Atkins enters the literary scene with aplomb, and he plans to stay.
Melanie Sumner, Author, The School of Beauty and Charm and Polite Society
AVAILABLE NOW!
AVAILABLE NOW!
Advance Praise for Sorrow Wood
Like all great southern writers before him, Raymond Atkins knows how to spin a yarn. With trenchant wit and lucid, poetic prose, he weaves the homely with the divine, creating characters that glow with human life. Facades don’t last long in Sorrow Wood --- these people know each other whether they want to or not, and their interactions inevitably lead to the kind of conflict that bares souls. Under the skillful direction of a master storyteller, Wendell, Reva, Otter, Deadhand, Eunice and their kin, friends, and foes, weave a plot that holds the reader fast to the page.
Melanie Sumner, Author, The School of Beauty and Charm and Polite Society
Sorrow Wood is sure to please readers looking for a good old-fashioned page-turning thriller, replete with a grisly murder, plenty of twists, and a surprising and yet logical ending. But it’s more than that – at bottom this is a love story between the two most unlikely guardians of the law to come along in a long, long time: Reva Blackmon, local judge, and Wendell, her policeman husband – destined to be together, perhaps since the dawn of time. A story at once funny, sad, and profoundly hopeful.
Man Martin, Author, Days of the Endless Corvette
The imagery in Atkins’ figurative language is both vivid with precise detail and familiar enough for us to relate to. Atkins has a knack for the nostalgic details of a difficult rural life where the comforts are emotional, not physical. His flair for poetic prose is not only beautiful and enjoyable, but also clever and meaningful. Atkins’ Sorrow Wood is a well-written, well-structured book of ideas in the guise of real down-home stories.
Ken Anderson, Author, Someone Bought the House on the Island and The Statue of Pan
Raymond L. Atkins has written a richly textured mystery, a complex blend of Southern Gothic, social satire, and page-turning whodunit. Reminiscent of Clyde Edgerton with its down-home characters, of James Wilcox with its uproarious humor, Sorrow Wood nonetheless has its own distinctive voice, and a more than distinctive charm. This is a novel destined to please many readers.
Greg Johnson, Author, Pagan Babies and Women I’ve Known: New and Selected Stories
Subtle humor and mostly pitch-perfect prose distinguish Atkins's compelling mix of mystery and romance, set in 1985 with flashbacks to the 1930s and '40s. Atkins (The Front Porch Prophet) smoothly weaves past into present as the action builds to a final poignant twist.
SORROW WOOD is ribald, witty and moving. It is as much a mystery about murder as it is about love, life—and afterlife—as hilarious as it is thought provoking.
2009 IPPY GOLD MEDAL!
