A big-hearted masterpiece of small-town life from a glorious new voice in American fiction.
Nickolas Butler was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Wisconsin, where he now lives with his wife and two children. Shotgun Lovesongs is his first novel.
‘Shotgun Lovesongs is as true as an honest day’s work, as serious
as a busted heart, as welcoming as a warm home fire burning…
Nickolas Butler has written a Midwestern masterpiece and has done
for the modest splendor of verdant farmlands what Larry McMurtry
did for the brutal beauty of small town Texas.’ Amber Dermont,
author of The Starboard Sea
‘Listen to the unforgettable characters and their chorus of voices
– as they sing about longing, about betrayal, about friendship and
marriage, about the green explosion of summer and the white music
of winter, about the gravity of home – and you will be moved to
laughter and tears, plugged in to a melody that brilliantly shares
the story of all our lives.’ Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon and
The Wilding
‘Nickolas Butler ripped my heart out with rare honesty and good
old-fashioned unapologetic love. A book that makes you want to call
old friends. A writer who makes you feel more human than you
thought possible.’ Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author
of The Silver Linings Playbook
‘An unswervingly big-hearted and compelling novel about an
indie-rocker made good and his best friends back home in Wisconsin,
all of them navigating their way through different iterations of
the America Dream, trying to make authentic lives and find
meaningful love... Nickolas Butler conducts a soaring, meditative
chorus of voices in his first novel. And it’s absolutely
beautiful.’ Dean Bakopoulos, author of My American Unhappiness
‘In this deeply-felt debut, Nickolas Butler paints a place and its
people with such love that you’ll find yourself falling for them,
too. This is a novel about home, and home is how the book feels.
With all the pull and power of the word, it brings us face to face
with the most important things: how hard it is to love well, to
stay loyal, to act right, to know what that means.’ Josh Weil,
author of The New Valley
‘A beautifully written, heartfelt novel about young men in the
Midwest grappling with the slipperiest bits of life. Butler has the
gift of making the everyday seem new – from the odd way fame
silently separates old friends, to the disheartening foibles of a
new marriage. This is a talented, thoughtful writer who throws his
characters against the singular Wisconsin backdrop and coaxes them
to live and breathe.’ Katie Crouch, author of Girls in Trucks
What a cracking book. Full of heart, full of compassion, full of
characters who have you rooting for them from the very first page.
Butler's sense of place is so strong that, reading Shotgun
Lovesongs, I became a temporary resident of small-town Wisconsin -
and once I'd finished it, I wanted to go right back there.
*Jubilee*
A wonderful book, filled with moments of gut-wrenching anguish and
also of soaring hope. It is a beautiful tale of small towns and
growing up and of trying to find a place in the world when home
doesn't feel like home any more. A new American classic.
*The Humans*
Nickolas Butler has written a novel to fall in love with: a paean
to the American Midwest that explores the shifting relationships
between old friends and the bonds between people and places. One of
a group of boyhood friends has made it good as a famous rock star;
others haven't. From that simple premise an addictive, deeply
enjoyable literary page-turner is born.
*Joy*
Nickolas Butler's Shotgun Lovesongs explores the complex
relationship between four old friends in a poetic novel that pays
tribute to the power of music and nature.
*Daily Express*
I fell in love with the title of this book, and fell even deeper in
love with it from page one. It is quiet, achingly sweet and
melancholy . . . A top contender for my book of 2014
*Absolutely West*
A big-hearted take on a small-town life from a new voice in
American fiction . . . Gorgeous, unforgettable novel.
*Marie Claire*
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