Outlaw Album

'A marvellous writer' - Roddy Doyle'Complex, poetic, strange and beautiful, conjuring up the musty fields and woods of the Ozarks, and the fiercely independent people who live there' - Guardian'Gripping ... Woodrell's folk are as separate in their rituals and customs as any of Tolkien's mythical creations' - Financial TimesDaniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal, behaviour in his wrenching first collection of short fiction.Desperation - both material and psychological - motivates his characters.A husband cruelly avenges the murder of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behaviour; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbour.There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories - between spouses, parents and children, siblings and comrades in arms - which brings the troubled, sorely tested cast of characters to vivid, relatable life.'He has cemented his role as one of American's greatest writers .... [in] one of the most important collections of short fiction produced in this country in over fifty years' - William Hastings