Hello!
Behold the cover art for my upcoming novel! Applause to publisher/designer Josh Dale of Thirty West Publishing House and artist Sophie (Knox) Peters for their vision. Knox’s sketches of balloon animals on the cover and throughout the book are not without a purpose (though you have to read the book to find out why :). Below are some more details about the book:
Description
From the author of Below the Falls, Ross McMeekin’s novel, Pepperleaf, explores a year in the life of five Pacific Northwest suburbanites whose worlds weave together through fraught circumstances such as a failing marriage, an unplanned pregnancy, a religious bereavement, and a father of two’s cancer diagnosis. Embodying the spirits of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and Elizabeth Strout’s fictional town of Crosby, Maine, McMeekin’s suburb of Pepperleaf is home to dozens of idiosyncratic characters who illuminate a piece of overlooked America. In spare, polished prose and delivered with wry, deadpan humor, Pepperleaf mines the quirks and unmet desires of a ‘burb between the big city and the trees, written to find its earnestness, depth, and meaning.
Early Coverage
“Master storyteller Ross McMeekin opens a window onto the intersecting lives of the residents of Pepperleaf. In this sharp-eyed, witty, and poignant tale, a motley cast of characters discovers they can all become more than they thought possible as life breaks them out and open. True to its Pacific Northwest setting and to the human condition, PEPPERLEAF is a literary delight.”
—Liz Kellebrew, author of CLOISTERED and THE RIVER PEOPLE
“In PEPPERLEAF, Ross McMeekin doesn’t just tell a story. For his third book, he creates an entire world on the scale of a Seattle suburb. This is an ecosystem of new love and heartbreak, resentment and illness, the overwhelming strength it takes to persevere. These are characters so fully realized they become our flesh-and-blood neighbors, friends, co-workers, our family, and—tenderly, uncomfortably—ourselves. Written with keen humor and prose that is spare yet devastating, McMeekin proves himself a master of rendering the unseen forces that hold us all together.”
—Jonathan Danielson, author of THE LOWEST BASIN: ARIZONA STORIES
“It’s a joy to spend time with the people of Pepperleaf with their taxidermy, their clowns, their late night watching of Bob Ross. Then McMeekin slips in the knife. This book, so full of heart, will wreck you.”
—Anca L. Szilágyi, author of Dreams Under Glass and Daughters of the Air
Preorders
You can now preorder the novel directly through my publisher, Thirty West Publishing House! Here’s the link. If you prefer shopping at bookstores or online retailers, those options will be coming soon.
Best wishes,
Ross
