Lost in the Furrows

Lost in the Furrows is a vivid collection set in a variety of troubled landscapes, in which stories unfold in a wide range of lengths and forms. These are the stories of those both on the fringe and in the thick-isolated, desperate people scrambling toward unknown horizons from pasts that linger and won't lie still. Populated with gritty, deeply flawed characters struggling to persevere, this is a book in which the dark facets of humanity are on full display. In its pages we find children resisting tradition, parents treading murky waters, and others caught in the throes of everyday catastrophe, from the mundane to the monumental. Some of these folks relentlessly fight to forge new fates, while others resign themselves to playing out scripts written without their say. But even those who manage to escape or succeed in mending their broken lives, in the end, are left wearing the scars. "The truth? This is the best book I've read all year, with the most gifted storytelling I've enjoyed in quite some time. In this spellbinder, people get bruised, burnt, deflowered, disgraced, and some even get saved, each in ingenious ways, all highlighted with needle-sharp prose. William R. Soldan's characters are thoroughly wrought, so much so that even the most hardscrabble and damaged character becomes someone to root for. It's rare for me to say this about a story collection, but I didn't want Lost in the Furrows to end, and I promise, you won't want it to either." -Len Kuntz, author of This Is Why I Need You"In William R. Soldan's new collection, we find men beaten down by circumstance, women made fierce by necessity, barroom poetics to rival early Waits or Springsteen or Townes van Zandt, and-most surprisingly-a gentleness for these things that most writers only bestow on that which is much softer. Soldan's steady gaze and ear for background musicality in plain language make this collection a delight you'll want to read straight through and return to immediately to see what overflowing joys you've missed."-Alex DiFrancesco, author of Psychopomps and All City "In Lost in the Furrows, William R. Soldan packs each story in explosives. "Like an uncoiled copperhead," the surging momentum of his masterful prose penetrates us, then hurls us into the tragic microcosm of life. Here we experience strained relationships, addiction, violence, and even love within dark, evocative scenes that leave us always uncertain which face will at last turn toward us until the final haunting line. Soldan is brilliant, inimitable, and fierce. There is deep beauty to be found in these hard truths he never backs away from. Unforgettable!" -Meg Tuite, author of Meet My Haze