Description
“Oswald brooded for weeks afterwards, but never told anyone about what he’d tried to do that day; not a soul in the entire world knew the significance of that window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building in Dallas, Texas.”
Two teenage school shooters visiting a diner. A pair of Catholic school teachers having a seedy affair. An alternate reality where Lee Harvey Oswald never pulled the trigger.
Lost Violent Souls is a collection of five short stories by Andy Nowicki, focusing on the sordid lives of desperate losers. With his trademark wit and attention to detail, Nowicki weaves bleak tales of marginal individuals who yearn to leave their mark on the world, always coming up short due to their own failings and the corrupt nature of humanity.
Originally published by Counter-Currents Publishing in 2013, Terror House Press is proud to bring this forgotten gem back into print.
“The way that Nowicki portrays his anti-heroes seems to suggest something like this: that these lost violent souls are striving for something to give their lives purpose, meaning, glory, even a kind of twisted beauty. For the modern world either perverts these things or makes them impossible. Religion is hollow. Political life is hollow. Sex is hollow.” — Cecilia Davenport, Affirmative Right
“The word ‘sin’ was originally an archery term used to describe when the archer misses the mark. In Lost Violent Souls, we witness a cadre of characters longing to make a mark. Yet their actions are desperate and fruitless, not quite on target. History will not grant them any special place in the collective memory of our species. They will not go to Valhalla despite their efforts, yet this is the case for the vast majority of people. We live and die in obscurity, never to be remembered. In this sense, Andy Nowicki has shown us the terrible truth of the human condition. We are dust.” — Nathan Leonard, Heathen Harvest
“The five death-haunted stories in this collection all address the oldest and utmost question of the human mind—why live? I am aware of no writer, or at least none since Dostoyevsky, who has confronted this everlasting issue with more resolve (and more intelligence!) than this one.” — Tito Perdue, author of Morning Crafts and The Node
Excerpts
Reviews
- Cecilia Davenport, Affirmative Right
- Nathan Leonard, Heathen Harvest
Lost Violent Souls is also available in paperback format. To purchase the paperback edition, click here.
COMBO DEAL: Purchase the e-book editions of Lost Violent Souls and Andy Nowicki’s other books The Columbine Pilgrim, Under the Nihil, Heart Killer, The Insurrectionist, and Muze together and save 10 percent. Use coupon code “NOWICKI” at checkout to get the discount.