UNSETTLING ~ WRY ~ TENDER

An unusual and unforgettable take on what it means to be an outsider, an outcast, a misfit.

Five thousand years after having escaped Crete, the Minotaur finds himself deep in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at Grub's Ribs.

He leads a lonely life observing the haphazard human goings on around him, trying in vain to put his flesh-devouring past behind him. Socially inept, he is at best tolerated by mortals. But as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and capacity for connection.

"A wry, melancholy, beautiful first novel . . . The language is everywhere precise and graceful . . . Genius" - * Guardian *

"Beautifully detailed and honed . . . a poetic testament to the wild, unchartable experience of human loving . . . Sherrill's vision is at once melancholy and deeply affirming. Somewhere in M's inchoate mass of sensation there exists a sharp spark of hope" - * Observer *

"Immaculate . . . Sherrill is a beautiful writer . . . he finds the drama to keep you reading, your heart in your mouth, to the conclusion's defiant roar of hope" - * Telegraph *

"At once ugly, tender and hopeful . . . Sherrill's Minotaur allows for allusive readings but remains rootedly among us" - * Independent *

"Exceptional . . . Steven Sherrill uses M as the vehicle for a finely observed and compassionate portrayal of humanity in all its guises" - * Irish Independent *

"As Updike did with small-town pep rallies and broken-down cars, Sherrill finds a descriptive paradise in the mundanities of the Minotaur's reality: the rhythms of the restaurant kitchen, the mysterious pleasures of auto repair, even the stench of rotting dog at the trailer park, are palpable . . . Wise and ingenious" - * New York Times *

"This is the most surreal slab of realism you will read all year. Unique and rather wonderful" - * Arena *

"Sherrill's dense, poetic style never falters in its creation of a perfect metaphor for the eternal outsider" - * Wall Street Journal *