The gods here are most definitely crazy

I had somehow tumbled upon Matt Bell’s book on Tumblr (get it?) and added it to my want to read list before reading this interview, but Jenifer Sky really gets the intrigue going with the intro/book description:

In his debut novel, In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, Matt Bell cracks us in the mind’s eye, drops us in inky waters, leaves us dripping with love potions and scarred from our innermost animal natures. A newlywed couple moves to a quiet, lakeshore plot, where they plan to build a home and a family together. The husband hunts and gathers, cutting down timber and catching fish on the line; the wife creates fine home furnishings for their raw spun home. With an ability to sing objects into existence, the wife plays an important part in their simple homesteading. She can call forward a bowl into being with her magical song—but she cannot bring to full term the children they continue to desperately long for. Her husband pulls away from her, and in the sorrow that ensues, foundations are altered, dimensions are punctured, and one house becomes two. A labyrinth, a twist, is built from the wife’s sad song. There is a bear in the forest; a squid in the lake; bones are buried in the garden; and wife is lost in the labyrinth beyond the darkness under the house upon the dirt. In the tradition of Calvino, Borges, and Kafka, this is a mystic’s tale—the gods here are most definitely crazy.

Seems like a book in my wheelhouse as they say …

Kevin Holtsberry
I work in communications and public affairs. I try to squeeze in as much reading as I can while still spending time with my wife and two kids (and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Michigan Wolverines during football season).

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