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Minnow is an otherworldly story of a small boy who leaves his dying father's bedside hunting a medicine for a mysterious illness. Sent by his mother to a local druggist in their coastal town, Minnow unexpectedly takes a dark and wondrous journey deep into the ancient Sea Islands, seeking the grave dust of a long-dead hoodoo man to buy him a cure. With only a half-feral dog at his side, Minnow's odyssey is haunted at every turn by the agents of Sorry George, a witch doctor who once stirred up a fever that killed 52 men. Meanwhile, a tempest brews out at sea, threatening to bring untold devastation to the coastal way of life. Minnow is a remarkable debut novel that evokes the fiction of Karen Russell and Lauren Groff, a Low Country Heart of Darkness about the mysteries of childhood, the sacrifices we make to preserve our families, and the ghosts that linger in the Spanish moss of the South Carolina barrier islands.
"Starred Review. An evocative novel that brings to life an intensely realized portrait of the South Carolina Lowcountry and sends its appealing young hero on a journey full of the strangeness of childhood and the difficult choices that come with growing up." - Kirkus
"This is a memorable coming-of-age story brimming with unexpected encounters with man, beast, and nature, and some magic thrown in for good measure." - Publishers Weekly
"Minnow is an urgent novel, as stark and wild as the fairy tale deep in its bones. James McTeer writes with a white magic all his own; Minnow, the small brave boy he has summoned from a handful of grave-dust and a hurricane, will live with me for a long time to come." - Lauren Groff, author of Arcadia and The Monsters of Templeton
"McTeer has created an unforgettable character and a strange American underworld, and with unabashed tenderness leaves his distinct mark on storytelling in the South." - Lydia Netzer, author of How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky and Shine, Shine, Shine
This information about Minnow was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Born and raised in Beaufort, McTeer is a school librarian in Columbia, SC. He is the grandson of the late J. E. McTeer, whose 37 years as High Sheriff of the Low Country (and local witch doctor) served as inspiration for Minnow.
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