August

Praise

“In this tightly controlled yet highly unpredictable novel we discover what it is like to come of age in a part of America that is always changing, always the same.”—The Guardian 

“Told with all the economy, clarity of character, and lively prose that mark [Callan] Wink’s short stories, this is writing that would tell just as well around the campfire as it does on the page.”—The Millions 

“Like a current Jim Harrison, Wink makes irresistible drama out of an individual’s search for identity in landscapes that are by turns romantic and limiting.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) 

“August is an exceptional coming-of-age story. Callan Wink is too wise and empathetic a writer to ever allow his readers easy judgments as we follow his memorable young protagonist on his precarious way through adolescence. An outstanding debut novel and worthy follow-up to Wink’s widely praised collection of stories.”—Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of The Risen and Serena
 
“Callan Wink’s characters are as real and vivid as if they’d stepped into your living room, uninvited, to tell their stories. His style is as clear, precise, and starkly poetic as the young Hemingway’s, but with a more droll sense of humor. This book is simply super—a deft, beautiful, deeply engaging read.”—Brad Watson, author of Miss Jane
 
“August is the rural coming-of-age that so many of us experience but so rarely see in print. Callan Wink has a voice like Annie Proulx’s; he lands every detail with concrete authenticity and every emotional moment with tangible feeling.”—Rae DelBianco, author of 2019 Prix Littéraire Lucien-Barrière winner Rough Animals

“August is alive. I haven’t connected with a character so intensely—and sometimes uncomfortably—since I first read Jim Harrison’s early novels almost thirty years ago. Wink’s prose has Harrison’s into-the-vein immediacy and Tom McGuane’s perfect pitch, and there’s a hard-to-pin-down hint of Cormac McCarthy in there too (so that makes three of my heroes). But the voice and ethos are new to me, and absolutely Wink’s.”—James A. McLaughlin, Edgar Award–winning author of Bearskin