Publisher: John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (February 5, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1328566455
ISBN-13: 978-1328566454
Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms . . . They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.
Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.
When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.
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Praise for BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES
“A tour-de-force of the imagination. Hicks has created a world that is beautifully and brutally surreal and yet, at the same time, BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES stands as a hyper-realistic psychological portrait of the death of the American factory town. My own identity as an American was disturbed and changed by this novel; some dormant understanding was shaken awake. This is a stunning and profound debut.” ―Julianna Baggott, bestselling author of New York Times Notable Book Pure
“Hicks’ debut novel is a thoughtful tour of the rotted and haunted heart of America. Highly recommended.” ―Jeremiah Tolbert, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author
“I can’t stop thinking about this book. It’s a haunting story that burrows under your skin like an insect laying eggs that hatch within you in the middle of the night. Hicks’ mesmerizing imagery kept me turning the pages and asking myself ‘How is this book happening? What sort of literary witchcraft am I witnessing?’” ―Maurice Broaddus, author of Buffalo Soldier and The Usual Suspects
“BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES is a breathless wonder of a debut novel… Hicks is a magician with words and has written a spellbinding, haunting and necessary book.” ―Anne Valente, author of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down
“Hicks has crafted a haunting story with multi-generational appeal, where the very real horror of poverty meets supernatural horror, and social issues like xenophobia, racism and economic anxiety are addressed organically through allegory and gripping storytelling.” ―Chris L. Terry, author of Black Card and Zero Fade
EXCERPT:
Hogboss Needs a Rid
Jane locked up and walked across the parking lot, keeping an eye out for ghosts. She heard the creaking groan of a shopping cart somewhere in the dark. She fumbled her keys out of her pocket, ready to quickly unlock her car or to defend herself.
The pig man pushed his cart out from behind a Pig City work truck, blocking her path.
His basket-like hands rested on the thin rail of the cart handle. His gray fur looked white in the wash of the parking lot lights. He let go of the cart and took a step toward her. Jane felt her mind stop, her body freeze. Even her ghost retreated deep within, both wondering if they would be dragged into a black place, snuffed out between his big hands.
“Excuse me,” the pig man said. “Something is wrong with my truck.”
Her ghost leaned against her chest, listening. He’s worried his meat will spoil.
Jane took a breath. “Okay. I can take a look at it for you.” She wished Henry were here. Machines were his thing, not hers.
Jane walked toward the pig man’s truck. He pushed his cart behind her, fretting about the meat. She didn’t have to pop the hood to know what was wrong. The whole truck trembled with ghosts. They filled its engine, pinging about inside the cylinders. They floated through the gas lines and the tank. They curled in the tires, and entwined their bodies with the electrical. She couldn’t see them, but her ghost told her they were there, told her what they were feeling. A pig working at our plant. A pig wearing our uniform. A stranger taking what’s ours. Send the pig back where it came from. Don’t let it take what little we have left.
“Did you drive through downtown?”
The pig man pointed across the dark smear of the city center. “I live on the other side.”
“You have to go around. Otherwise, the ghosts mob you. You’re lucky it’s not worse than this.” She was surprised the pig man hadn’t ended up haunted himself. The ghosts must not have seen anything in him that reminded them of themselves.
He grunted. “Can it be fixed?”
“Let it sit here for the night. By morning, most of the ghosts should have moved on. Maybe your truck will start then.” She doubted it, but there wasn’t much else to do.
The pig man thanked her and stood there with his cart. He sniffed the air. Her ghost read his thoughts, how he weighed pushing his cart straight through downtown against taking a longer way and risking the meat going bad.
Jane sighed, already regretting what she was about to say. “I can give you a ride home, if you want.” She hoped this wouldn’t be a mistake, that the pig man hadn’t been planning to get her alone in the close space of a car.
Copyright © 2019 by Micah Dean Hicks
Photo Credit: Scot Lerner 2018
Micah Dean Hicks is the author of the novel Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones. He is also the author of Electricity and Other Dreams, a collection of dark fairy tales and bizarre fables. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Hicks grew up in rural southwest Arkansas and now lives in Orlando. He teaches creative writing at the University ofCentral Florida.
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