The Outlaw Album - Softcover

Delivered in a voice as rich and thick with authenticity as any found this side of William Faulkner, Woodrell unfurls a parade of small people and their half-broke lives, each one shaped, and usually cracked, by the aftermath of some tragedy, but enduring, keeping on, as if breath itself, or simple existence, is its own reward... * Irish Examiner * ...It's a terrific book...If you can cope with macabre and shop-soiled side of life, then this is 21st-century short story writing of the highest calibre. * Telegraph online * He has moved beyond the noir of his earlier work into something that encompasses a greater spectrum of understanding. He has cemented his role as one of America's greatest writers...THE OUTLAW ALBUM is an idiosyncratic, lyric, stunning collection of stories. It is one of the most important collections of short fiction produced in this country in over fifty years. * William Hastings, Industrial Worker Book Review * Each story is a stylized dark allegory...The language is sparse yet majestic, deftly describing mountains, canyons and creek beds. * Theresa Munoz, Scottish Sunday Herald * Woodrell writes a striking prose that lopes from clause to clause like William Faulkner's...he recalls writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor and the Faulkner of Sanctuary in his ability to transform crime into literature. * John Dugdale, Literary Review * Woodrell writes about violence and dark deeds better than almost anyone in America today, in compact, musical prose that doesn't dwell on visceral detail. An unerring craftsman...Every story is loaded with gems...Most of the stories deal with the darkest recesses of the human heart, and once you start reading them you can't stop. * Donald Ray Pollock, New York Times * 'gripping...Woodrell's folk are as separate in their rituals and customs as any of Tolkein's mythical creations...Woodrell whittles his stories into shape with a serrated knife, and while the language of his characters is a constant surprise with those oblique turns-of-phrase...the curious sideways progression of his plots is what I find most enrapturing.' * George Pendle, Financial Times * 'Woodrell writes in an almost biblical idiom, which makes the brutality of his stories shocking... These are timeless tales of humans capable of compassion but also monumental violence.' * Leyla Sanai, Independent * In a tight navigation of narrative voice, Woodrell manages to turn candid detachment into a form of rough poetic truth, even though the lives of his characters remain far removed from the world of literary sentiment. * TLS * 'Woodrell is a marvellous writer' * Roddy Doyle * tales of horror and desperation that'll leave you reeling. In a good way. * Shortlist * wonderful, savage narratives...remarkable even by Woodrell's soaring standards * Irish Times * His language is complex, poetic, strange and beautiful, conjuring up the misty fields and woods of the Ozarks, and the fiercely independent people who live there. * Josh Lacey, Guardian *

Daniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal, behaviour in his wrenching first collection of short fiction. Desperation - both material and psychological - motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the murder of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behaviour; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbour. There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories - between spouses, parents and children, siblings and comrades in arms - which brings the troubled, sorely tested cast of characters to vivid, relatable life.