THE NEW SALVATION AND OTHER STORIES
by Daren Dean
$13.99
Order Here!
In his second story collection, Daren Dean delves in to what William Faulkner once described as the only thing worth writing about: “the human heart in conflict with itself." From the rural Midwest to the Deep South, Dean's stories explore the tension, beauty, and profound sadness of the human condition. These stories will thrill, provoke outrage, and invite readers to contemplate the fragile beauty and conflicts of the human soul.
Praise for The New Salvation and Daren Dean
“Daren Dean is a master at excavating the contradictions inherent in the hearts of men and these layered stories weave together a kind of brutal realism alongside moments of gorgeous poetic reflection. We, the readers, feel the pains and struggles of these deeply complex characters who are doing their best, even when their best ain’t good enough.”
–Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Grow
"The boys and men of Daren Dean’s The New Salvation all desperately want to do right, but the world isn’t making it easy for them. Pressures and expectations come from all sides, but especially from fathers. Responsibilities weigh heavily, and Dean’s protagonists strain to keep things afloat, but as one character in ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’ says, ‘By the time you’re old enough to understand anything, the few things you do learn come too late to help you very much.’ These are gutsy stories that grapple with the hardest of questions, and as in life, good answers never come easy. The New Salvation is unforgettable and utterly satisfying.”
–Kevin Grauke, author of Shadows of Men and Yonderites
“Daren Dean writes of two brothers, ‘He had sent Craig several letters and they had all been returned unopened. His daddy gave him updates about Craig like he was a boy he had once gone to school with. He knew there was a rift between the brothers, but he had never asked about it because he felt it was a personal matter between them to resolve or not. And how his brother was dead and there was no time left for reconciliation.’ These moments a family’s nuance, strife, and intimate knowledge of one another embody the heart of The New Salvation, a remarkable short story collection that seamlessly interweaves timeless questions of how one generation’s trauma bleed into the next with meditations on masculinity, segueing into stories of gators, holographic preachers, and dentist visits gone awry along the way. These are stories of universalities and eventualities, told with an earnest grit no author can capture quite like Dean.”
–Michael Chin, author of My Grandfather's an Immigrant, and So Is Yours and This Year's Ghost
“Devoted readers of Daren Dean—of whom I am one—will be delighted by The New Salvation. Dean writes prose that isn’t afraid to show off its calluses. His sentences still land like gut-punches, even as they--in the indelible words of one of his narrators—'reach up to the moon like savage prayers.’ But The New Salvation also proves that Dean has considerably more stylistic muscles to flex, as he weaves thrilling elements of sci-fi, Southern Gothic, and madcap farce into his trademark dirty realism. The New Salvation is a captivating performance by a Missoura maestro.”
–John Waddy Bullion, author of This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers: Stories
“Daren Dean’s The New Salvation and Other Stories has more bangers in it than an AR clip. Dean’s tightly spun tales are a kaleidoscope’s view into the full range of human emotion...Dean is simply a masterful, gritty, storyteller, with a voice that vibrates in your head in the best possible way long after you put the book down.”
–JD Clapp, Author of A Good Man Goes South: Stories and Poachers and Pills
by Daren Dean
$13.99
Order Here!
In his second story collection, Daren Dean delves in to what William Faulkner once described as the only thing worth writing about: “the human heart in conflict with itself." From the rural Midwest to the Deep South, Dean's stories explore the tension, beauty, and profound sadness of the human condition. These stories will thrill, provoke outrage, and invite readers to contemplate the fragile beauty and conflicts of the human soul.
Praise for The New Salvation and Daren Dean
“Daren Dean is a master at excavating the contradictions inherent in the hearts of men and these layered stories weave together a kind of brutal realism alongside moments of gorgeous poetic reflection. We, the readers, feel the pains and struggles of these deeply complex characters who are doing their best, even when their best ain’t good enough.”
–Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Grow
"The boys and men of Daren Dean’s The New Salvation all desperately want to do right, but the world isn’t making it easy for them. Pressures and expectations come from all sides, but especially from fathers. Responsibilities weigh heavily, and Dean’s protagonists strain to keep things afloat, but as one character in ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’ says, ‘By the time you’re old enough to understand anything, the few things you do learn come too late to help you very much.’ These are gutsy stories that grapple with the hardest of questions, and as in life, good answers never come easy. The New Salvation is unforgettable and utterly satisfying.”
–Kevin Grauke, author of Shadows of Men and Yonderites
“Daren Dean writes of two brothers, ‘He had sent Craig several letters and they had all been returned unopened. His daddy gave him updates about Craig like he was a boy he had once gone to school with. He knew there was a rift between the brothers, but he had never asked about it because he felt it was a personal matter between them to resolve or not. And how his brother was dead and there was no time left for reconciliation.’ These moments a family’s nuance, strife, and intimate knowledge of one another embody the heart of The New Salvation, a remarkable short story collection that seamlessly interweaves timeless questions of how one generation’s trauma bleed into the next with meditations on masculinity, segueing into stories of gators, holographic preachers, and dentist visits gone awry along the way. These are stories of universalities and eventualities, told with an earnest grit no author can capture quite like Dean.”
–Michael Chin, author of My Grandfather's an Immigrant, and So Is Yours and This Year's Ghost
“Devoted readers of Daren Dean—of whom I am one—will be delighted by The New Salvation. Dean writes prose that isn’t afraid to show off its calluses. His sentences still land like gut-punches, even as they--in the indelible words of one of his narrators—'reach up to the moon like savage prayers.’ But The New Salvation also proves that Dean has considerably more stylistic muscles to flex, as he weaves thrilling elements of sci-fi, Southern Gothic, and madcap farce into his trademark dirty realism. The New Salvation is a captivating performance by a Missoura maestro.”
–John Waddy Bullion, author of This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers: Stories
“Daren Dean’s The New Salvation and Other Stories has more bangers in it than an AR clip. Dean’s tightly spun tales are a kaleidoscope’s view into the full range of human emotion...Dean is simply a masterful, gritty, storyteller, with a voice that vibrates in your head in the best possible way long after you put the book down.”
–JD Clapp, Author of A Good Man Goes South: Stories and Poachers and Pills