Pineville Trace

Description

After being sentenced to a minimum-security prison in eastern Kentucky, former southern revival preacher and confidence man, Frank Russet, escapes. Taking only a cat named Buffalo and a desire to outrun his former life, he struggles on the fringes of society and seeks redemption amidst the wilderness.

“I always tell the same story. Over and over. It’s the story about getting what you want. And the story about not getting what you want. It’s the only story I know.”

Wes Blake tells a parallel story in Pineville Trace. Like a photo and its negative, the narrative follows similar characters and situations as Frank is rewriting over his past to make sense of it. Following the Buffalo—or, at least, a cat named Buffalo—Frank Russet mulls over his past in a layered narrative that would lead you deeper into the wilderness with no way out. Blake’s debut novella plays with time, begging the reader to follow along and trust the ride. Frank is a protagonist filled with guilt, searching for meaning in the forest with his cat, Buffalo.

“[Frank] had become an actor in his own life. Reading a script.”

As Frank traverses the shadowy edges of society, he encounters remnants of his former self, forcing him to confront his deepest regrets and desires. Blake’s haunting prose captures the essence of a man on the brink of transformation, urging readers to ponder the thin line between redemption and damnation.

“Wes Blake renders the tale with great empathy and in language that’s so lyrical it practically lifts from the page. Blake is a writer to watch.” —Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Bright Forever

“Despite his own certainty that he is a fraud, Frank emerges for the reader as the truest kind of prophet, following a cat named Buffalo and searching for “the old magic.” A haunting debut!” —Julie Hensley, author of Five Oaks

“A terse, poignant, and sometimes bitter look at a man’s journey to tether his interior world to a meaningful anchor in the physical one.” —Tina Andry, author of ransom notes

“It is a dream book in the form of a road novel, a vision quest about finding a house in the trees. Blake’s novel shines into the spirit and reveals the struggle of our living in such worldly and spiritual conditions.” —Matthew Haughton, author of Stand in the Stillness of Woods

A Novellla-in-Flash by Wes Blake

Winner of the Etchings Press Book Prize

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