Winner of the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Named “Outstanding 2013 Collection” by The Story Prize Pushcart Prize Winner 
In this stunning debut, Shawn Vestal transports us to the afterlife, the rugged Northwest, and the early days of Mormonism. From “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death,” an absurd, profound vision of a hellish heaven, to "Winter Elders," in which missionaries calmly and relentlessly pursue a man who has left the fold, these nine stories illuminate the articles of faith that make us human. The concluding triptych tackles the legends and legacy of Mormonism head-on, culminating in "Diviner," a seriocomic portrait of the young Joseph Smith, back when he was not yet the founder of a religion but a man hired to find buried treasure. Godforsaken Idaho is an indelible collection by the writer you need to read next.

Godforsaken Idaho

Literature & Fiction

Vestal, Shawn

United States

Little A / New Harvest

Equally acclaimed for its beautiful design and its cutting-edge content, each issue of Tin House features a memorable mix of work by renowned contemporary writers alongside a new generation of talent poised to become important voices of the future. This issue features a wide variety of content: short stories, profiles, author interviews, poetry, essays, along with unique departments such as "Lost & Found," reviews of overlooked or underrated books; and "Blithe Spirits" and "Readable Feast," which present tales and recipes for drinks and food in a literary way. Readers are encouraged to snuggle up with a warm blanket and a bright light, as this winter reading issue takes them down the dark, abandoned corridors of the human condition. Authors Christopher Sorrentino and Benjamin Nugent present fiction both comic and dramatic, while Kate Christensen and Katie Crouch put on readable feasts in the celebrated Tin House tradition.

Tin House: Winter Reading

Christensen, Kate

Sorrentino, Christopher

Contemporary

Tin House Magazine

Daredevils

Literary

From the winner of 2014’s PEN Robert W. Bingham Prize, an unforgettable debut novel about Loretta, a teenager married off as a “sister wife,” who makes a break for freedom At the heart of this exciting debut novel, set in Arizona and Idaho in the mid-1970s, is fifteen-year-old Loretta, who slips out of her bedroom every evening to meet her so-called gentile boyfriend. Her strict Mormon parents catch her returning one night, and promptly marry her off to Dean Harder, a devout yet materialistic fundamentalist who already has a wife and a brood of kids. The Harders relocate to his native Idaho, where Dean’s teenage nephew Jason falls hard for Loretta. A Zeppelin and Tolkien fan, Jason worships Evel Knievel and longs to leave his close-minded community. He and Loretta make a break for it. They drive all night, stay in hotels, and relish their dizzying burst of teenage freedom as they seek to recover Dean’s cache of “Mormon gold.” But someone Loretta left behind is on their trail... A riveting story of desire and escape, Daredevils boasts memorable set pieces and a rich cast of secondary characters. There’s Dean’s other wife, Ruth, who as a child in the 1950s was separated from her parents during the notorious Short Creek raid, when federal agents descended on a Mormon fundamentalist community. There’s Jason’s best friend, Boyd, part Native American and caught up in the activist spirit of the time, who comes along for the ride, with disastrous results. And Vestal’s ultimate creation is a superbly sleazy chatterbox—a man who might or might not be Evel Knievel himself—who works his charms on Loretta at a casino in Elko, Nevada. A lifelong journalist whose Spokesman column is a fixture in Spokane, WA, Shawn has honed his fiction over many years, publishing in journals like McSweeney's and Tin House. His stunning first collection, Godforsaken Idaho, burrowed into history as it engaged with masculinity and crime, faith and apostasy, and the West that he knows so well. Daredevils shows what he can do on a broader canvas--a fascinating, wide-angle portrait of a time and place that's both a classic coming of age tale and a plunge into the myths of America, sacred and profane.

Daredevils: A Novel

Penguin Press

Penguin Publishing Group

Winner of the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction 
Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 
Named “Outstanding 2013 Collection” by The Story Prize 
Pushcart Prize Winner 
In this stunning debut, Shawn Vestal transports us to the afterlife, the rugged Northwest, and the early days of Mormonism. From “The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death,” an absurd, profound vision of a hellish heaven, to “Winter Elders,” in which missionaries calmly and relentlessly pursue a man who has left the fold, these nine stories illuminate the articles of faith that make us human. 
The concluding triptych tackles the legends and legacy of Mormonism head-on, culminating in “Diviner,” a seriocomic portrait of the young Joseph Smith, back when he was not yet the founder of a religion but a man hired to find buried treasure. Godforsaken Idaho is an indelible collection by the writer you need to read next.

Godforsaken Idaho: Stories

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

Little A

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