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Field Notes for the Earthbound

Earthbound grass
John Mauk Field Notes for the Earthbound

Cursed by tenderhearted witches, saved by Nazarene healers, and haunted by brazen lunatics, the characters in Field Notes for the Earthbound yearn to escape the relentless horizon of Northwestern Ohio. These connected stories chronicle an area dying to itself, shedding its magic, and awakening to the highways, bottled beer, and rock-n-roll washing over the Midwestern flatland.

John Mauk's stories

are filled with magic, violence, and wisdom. Among the blessed and the cursed, the drunks and the perverts, you will meet a girl who can fly, a belligerent priest, and the son of a witch. There's something organic and essential, even inevitable, about these oddly shaped stories; it's as though they might have written themselves.

Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell

Mauk gives us a world

you will find only here, only here until you set the book aside and go for a walk. Then you will begin to feel his world surrounding you. You will wonder if maybe, just maybe, what you have read has been there all along, just down the street, in aisle three at the market, or up there in that house at the top of the hill.

Jack Ridl

Jack Ridl

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