by Steve Himmer

After an aimless life, Martin Blaskett is ready to settle down, unaware of the rising tension between the wild and the domestic in his new town. When he draws the attention of a shape-shifter from local legend, his world is shaken, and he is led across the slippery border of the feral wilderness which has a history all its own.

PRAISE FOR SCRATCH:
"The writing is magnificently inventive throughout […] A terrific voice and premise."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Scratch finds Steve Himmer doing what he does best—putting a magnifier to the fine line between human and beast, between what is tame and what is red in tooth and claw. Then he sets fire to any old platitudes about nature and man, creating a new mythology out of the ashes and shadows."
—Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and May We Shed These Human Bodies

“Scratch is not only a ripping tale—of dreams and darkness, humans and houses, and the creatures those houses are meant to keep out—but a contemplation of the beautiful dark mysteries of nature. Like a strange old story you overheard when you thought you were alone in the woods, Scratch is beguiling, haunting, and wild.”
—Kate Racculia, author of Bellweather Rhapsody

"Steve Himmer's particular genius involves giving the minds of his characters room to roam. His take on literary horror might usefully be compared to that of Benjamin Percy or William Gay, but its roots reach back much further, through Shirley Jackson to Hawthorne and Poe. This book, this gift to us, is an absolutely essential reminder that every story starts at the edge of the forest."
—Roy Kesey, author of Any Deadly Thing

PRAISE FOR STEVE HIMMER:
“When a covert mission sends Oscar, a low-ranking employee in the Bureau of Ice Prognostication, to the arctic, he must confront the perils and pains of a life lived under the veil of secrecy. Fram is an extraordinary meditation on the critical flaws in the systems we hold dear, and the human costs of those flaws. Steve Himmer writes with such uncommon intelligence and sorrow and grace, I would follow him anywhere—into the arctic and beyond.”
—Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me, The Isle of Youth, and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

“Himmer’s debut novel [The Bee-Loud Glade] evokes Chekhov, Thoreau, Fowles, and others.”
—Publishers Weekly

ABOUT STEVE HIMMER:
Steve Himmer is author of the novels The Bee-Loud Glade and Fram. His stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Hobart, Hawk & Handsaw, The Collagist, and Los Angeles Review, and in anthologies such as On The Clock: Contemporary Short Stories of Work and Re:Telling. He edits the web journal Necessary Fiction and teaches at Emerson College in Boston.

PUBLICATION DETAILS: 
Pages: 200
ISBN: 978-1940430843
Publication Date: October 2016