Staff Pick
The Minotaur, M, a fantastical and once fearsome beast from Greek mythology, is now reduced to a mundane existence in the gritty South. Yet even M, the most displaced of creatures, finds himself chancing at hope for happiness of a crude sort. Author Steven Sherrill offers a raw and redeeming take on finding one's place in the world in this excellent debut novel. Recommended By Aubrey W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Five thousand years out of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love.
Review
“[A] brilliant imagination...Every page is a delight worth savoring for a millennium or two.” —
USA Today“One of the most original and oddly moving novels in some time...funny, touching, haunting...If you dont fall under the spell of Sherrills Minotaur, so human in his needs and longings, you probably should be tossed in the labyrinth yourself.” —The Charlotte Observer
“Darkly intelligent and sometimes dazzling. The Minotaur is a complex and sympathetic creation, conspicuous yet socially invisible. Whats more, hes here to stay.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“[A] comic, bittersweet first novel...Sherrill reveals himself as that most endangered of literary species, a crafty, talented novelist whos not afraid to show his heart.”—Chicago Tribune
“[Sherrill] can make images luminesce with the reflected light of language.” —San Diego Union-Tribune
About the Author
Steven Sherrill is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop. The recipient of a Lila Wallace/ Readers Digest Fellowship, his poems and stories have appeared in
Best American Poetry,
Kenyon Review, and
Georgia Review. He lives in Altoona, Pennsylvania.