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East of Denver
Paperback
Series: Strattford County, Book 1
ISBN13: 9781087801162
Publisher: Daisy Dog Press
Published: Nov 14 2019
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.68
Height: 0.61 Width: 5.25 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Winner of the Colorado Book Award for Literary Fiction
Winner of the [Evil Retailer] Breakthrough Novel Award
When Shakespeare Williams returns to his family's farm in eastern Colorado to bury his dead cat, he finds his widowed and senile father Emmett living in squalor. He has no money, the land is fallow, and a local banker has cheated his father out of the majority of the farm equipment and his beloved Cessna.
With no job and no prospects, Shakespeare suddenly finds himself caretaker to both his dad and the farm, and drawn into an unlikely clique of old high school classmates: Vaughn Atkins, a paraplegic confined to his mother's basement, Carissa McPhail, an overweight bank teller who pitches for the local softball team, and longtime bully D.J. Beckman, who now deals drugs throughout small-town Dorsey. Facing the loss of the farm, Shakespeare hatches a half-serious plot with his father and his fellow gang of misfits to rob the very bank that has stolen their future.
REVIEWS
An eye for detail, an ear for dialogue, and a knack for story-telling distinguish this unflinching novel of rural America. - Publishers Weekly
A breezily readable summer novel that not only entertains but also surprises. It explores the dynamics of family relationships without ever stooping to sentimentality, and it's one of this summer's most pleasant surprises. - Austin American-Statesman
This is writing on a par with that of top-flight black-comic novelists like Sam Lipsyte and Jess Walter, and it deserves to be read. - Lev Grossman
A witty, snarky, and thoroughly enjoyable read. - Portland Book Review
From beginning to end, the novel's great achievement is Hill's gift of characters: people who are often broken, crumbling, and struggling, but always irresistible. - Brother Patrick Mary Briscoe, O.P. Dominicana
What makes [East of Denver] special, and especially powerful, is that Hill, like his damaged characters, has a real talent for fucking everything up. - Tropmag
There's no fantasy escapism here. It's real life. And real life is darkly comic. - Adventures With Words
A fine first novel from a writer with a great sense of character - Booklist
Dark humor, zany characters, and a sharp eye for detail distinguish this arch novel set in Colorado's dying farmland. - Marysue Rucci
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