Legend of a Suicide

The reportorial relentlessness of [David] Vanns imagination often makes his fiction seem less written than chiseled. A small, lovely book has been written out of his large and evident pain.New York Times Book ReviewIn Legend of a Suicide, his heartbreaking semi-autobiographical debut story-collection, David Vann relates the story of a young man trying to come to terms with the guilt and pain of his fathers suicide. The wild outback of the authors native Alaska acts as the ideal backdrop for this collage of six storiesa novella and five shortsand mirrors the authors own psychological wilderness. From an important new voice in American literature (Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain) comes an unforgettable exploration of the tragic gaps between one boy and his father.