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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus |
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| English | |
HIGH AS THE HORSES' BRIDLES
A bold, heartbreaking debut from a big new American voice.
An urgent, electric debut novel about inheritance, belief, and a father and son divided by a dangerous prophecy.
It's 1980 at a crowded amphitheater in Queens, New York and a nervous Josiah Laudermilk, age 12, is about to step to the stage while thousands of believers wait to hear him, the boy preaching prodigy, pour forth. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Josiah's nerves shake away and his words come rushing out, his whole body fills to the brim with the certainty of a strange apocalyptic vision. But is it true prophecy or just a young believer's imagination running wild? Decades later when Josiah (now Josie) is grown and has long since left the church, he returns to Queens to care for his father who, day by day, is losing his grip on reality. Barreling through the old neighborhood, memories of the pastof his childhood friend Issy, of his first love, of the mother he has yet to properly mournoverwhelm him at every turn. When he arrives at his family's old house, he's completely unprepared for what he finds. How far back must one man journey to heal a broken bond between father and son?
In rhapsodic language steeped in the oral tradition of American evangelism, Scott Cheshire brings us under his spell. Remarkable in scalemoving from 1980 Queens, to sunny present-day California, to a tent revival in nineteenth century rural Kentuckyand shot-through with the power and danger of belief and the love that binds generations, High as the Horses' Bridles is a bold, heartbreaking debut from a big new American voice.
The novel has already been embraced by the literary community, with praise from Colum McCann, Philip Meyer, Said Sayrafiezadeh, and Peter Manseau. A former child preacher himself, Cheshire earned his MFA from Hunter College where he worked closely with Nathan Englander, Peter Carey, Colum McCann, and as Jonathan Franzen's research assistant during the writing of Freedom. Both his fiction and non-fiction have been widely published, anthologized, and won numerous awards. Previously at Picador, Cheshire is now the interviews editor at the Tottenville Review.
"This is a rare and beautiful debut that will have readers thinking of Aleksandar Hemon, of E.L Doctorow, of Don DeLillo." - Colum McCann
"a great new American epic" - Philipp Meyer
It's 1980 at a crowded amphitheater in Queens, New York and a nervous Josiah Laudermilk, age 12, is about to step to the stage while thousands of believers wait to hear him, the boy preaching prodigy, pour forth. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Josiah's nerves shake away and his words come rushing out, his whole body fills to the brim with the certainty of a strange apocalyptic vision. But is it true prophecy or just a young believer's imagination running wild? Decades later when Josiah (now Josie) is grown and has long since left the church, he returns to Queens to care for his father who, day by day, is losing his grip on reality. Barreling through the old neighborhood, memories of the pastof his childhood friend Issy, of his first love, of the mother he has yet to properly mournoverwhelm him at every turn. When he arrives at his family's old house, he's completely unprepared for what he finds. How far back must one man journey to heal a broken bond between father and son?
In rhapsodic language steeped in the oral tradition of American evangelism, Scott Cheshire brings us under his spell. Remarkable in scalemoving from 1980 Queens, to sunny present-day California, to a tent revival in nineteenth century rural Kentuckyand shot-through with the power and danger of belief and the love that binds generations, High as the Horses' Bridles is a bold, heartbreaking debut from a big new American voice.
The novel has already been embraced by the literary community, with praise from Colum McCann, Philip Meyer, Said Sayrafiezadeh, and Peter Manseau. A former child preacher himself, Cheshire earned his MFA from Hunter College where he worked closely with Nathan Englander, Peter Carey, Colum McCann, and as Jonathan Franzen's research assistant during the writing of Freedom. Both his fiction and non-fiction have been widely published, anthologized, and won numerous awards. Previously at Picador, Cheshire is now the interviews editor at the Tottenville Review.
"This is a rare and beautiful debut that will have readers thinking of Aleksandar Hemon, of E.L Doctorow, of Don DeLillo." - Colum McCann
"a great new American epic" - Philipp Meyer
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Book
Published 2014-06-01 by Henry Holt |