A Thousand Souls
A Novel in Stories
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Acre Books
Publishing:12th Apr '26
£16.00
This title is due to be published on 12th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A collection of fourteen stories interweaving the lives of three generations in the remote town of Neptune, Vermont.
Catching sight of the village of Neptune nestled in a remote Vermont valley, a traveler likens it to “a lost kingdom.” The fourteen stories in Catherine Tudish’s gorgeously crafted volume interweave the lives of three generations in this “embarrassingly pretty town” of “upward of a thousand souls” as they inevitably touch the outside world. A boy born of a secret affair travels by train to South Carolina for a first-time meeting with his respected father. A recent widow and Boston transplant solves the mystery of a teen girl gone missing. A beloved sheriff breaks up a drug operation, only to get busted himself for helping undocumented workers evade ICE. The disappointed wife of a rural mail driver presents him with a nude portrait—of herself. A shy girl with a speech impediment loses her stutter when she befriends and speaks to a black bear. Another boy has nightmares that seem to be the memories of a distant stranger’s tragedy.
Even as their loyalties and traditions are tested through loss, betrayal, and startling discovery, the characters in A Thousand Souls embody the belonging that comes from a close-knit community. Sharply observed, wry, and deeply tender, these stories resonate with both the intricacy and cost of interconnection as the years pass, and ordinary lives take unexpected turns.
"Catherine Tudish's A Thousand Souls is the work of a born storyteller, a writer's writer, with the evidence shining forth from every page. There's a marvelous sense of place at work here, and a deep understanding of the human heart. A Thousand Souls is why good fiction still matters."
* W. D. Wetherell, author of "A Century of November" and "Chekhov’s Sister" *"What a wonderful writer Catherine Tudish is and what a marvelous novel in stories she has written, so mysterious, so complicated, so beautiful. As one story opens into the next—a girl tames a bear, a boy briefly meets his father, a young woman takes French lessons, a sheriff loses his job—the web of connections, and our sense of this very particular place in rural Vermont, deepens. A Thousand Souls offers the richest of reading pleasures: the experience of lives lived over time, and the secret sorrows and joys of the community."
* Margot Livesey, author of "The Road from BelhaveISBN: 9781968209025
Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 15mm
Weight: 286g
224 pages