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THE NEW VALLEY
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“I was captivated and moved by each of these finely made novellas. The quiet, mostly ordinary lives of the characters who populate The New Valley shine with a strange and intense luminosity that is at times heartbreaking, at other times triumphant. There is a magic and gentle beauty in this book that makes me remember why I had always wanted to be a writer. “
– Tim O'Brien, author of July, July
"Josh Weil’s debut book The New Valley has a sense of the notable on every page. This is the very rare but clear case of the sky being the limit for a young author."
– Jim Harrison, author of The English Major
“With The New Valley, Josh Weil makes a spectacular entry in the art of American storytelling. His rendering of place is strong as Flannery O'Connor's; his engagement with the moral landscape of a sorry corner of the country is sure as Cormac McCarthy's. In their contemplation of the past, Weil's characters--earthy, scrappy, often comic--seek restoration, figuratively and literally. These three fine novellas remind us with wit and energy, that we are all in for repair.”
– Maureen Howard, author of The Silver Screen
“In Josh Weil’s soulful debut fiction hard, wintery men bring the near-dead back to life. A steer, a tractor, a woman bolt upright, clearly heart-charged by the obsessive attentions of these cut-off men. The prose unfailingly befits the action and is percussively wrought and rich or else plain and grave but always deeply moving.”
– Christine Schutt, author of All Souls
“This is beautiful, heartrending fiction. With deep pathos and stunning imagination, Josh Weil gives powerful voice to lives too often ignored and throws brilliant light on places in our country – and our hearts – that are too often in the dark. The New Valley marks the arrival of an important new writer in American letters. His vision is as clear and welcome as moonlight on the horizon.”
– Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Corpus Christ
"Beware these seemingly quiet novellas: they hit hard. Josh Weil has created devastatingly memorable characters of people rarely noticed and never loved. With remarkable skill and insight, he has located the spot in the human heart where loneliness resides. Exquisitely written, deeply felt, and haunting, The New Valley is a beautiful book."
– Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route
“In these meticulously crafted narratives about rural life in the Virginia hill-country, Josh Weil explores masculine loneliness with classic richness and depth. This is old-fashioned storytelling in the very best sense.”
– Helen Schulman, author of A Day at the Beach
"Josh Weil is a terrific young writer. His sense of what is crucial and dramatic make his stories deeply alive."
– John Casey, author of Testimony and Demeanor
“While I read these novellas, I realized at some point early on I kept holding my breath. Why? Because Josh Weil's stories are about people who tell no one anything, ever---men who know more cattle than they do people, and who trust the cattle more. Men who shrug off their heartbreak and die with their secrets. By turns sweet, funny, heartbreaking, and terrifying, Josh Weil makes his quietly powerful debut.”
– Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh
“At its best, The New Valley demonstrates the kind of double knowing - of the world of things, as well as of the human heart - that boldly reaches for the grail of fiction: a world unto itself, complete, compelling, ultimately undeniable. Weil's domain is the parallel world of rural America that still exists just outside the swaddled precincts of the 21st century. His prose – taut, precise, as unflinching as it is tender, particularly in 'Ridge Weather' – suggests a strong new voice in American fiction.”
– Mark Slouka, author of The Visible World