Out of the Woods

Seven years ago, Chris Offutt made his literary debut with Kentucky Straight, a fiercely original collection that earned him not only critical praise but awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Whiting Foundation.

The eight new stories in Out of the Woods mark Offutt's return to the form in which he first displayed his astonishing talent. Offutt, who "draws landscape and constructs dialogue with the eyes and ears of a native son" (The Miami Herald), is on strong home turf here, capturing those who have left the Kentucky hills and long to return.

In "Tough People, " luck wins out over love in an unconventional prizefight. In "Barred Owl, " when a bird strays too far from home and fatally loses its way, the Kentuckian who covets its pelt meets an identical fate. In "Target Practice, " a man can't earn his father's respect until he shoots him with a rifle. These are stories of gravediggers and drifters, gamblers and truck drivers a long way from home, tales s full of hard edges that they can't help but tell some hard truths.