Kail Lambert spends the summer after high school graduation traveling the country, hoping to make it all the way to San Francisco before returning home to Illinois. However, a broken motorcycle leaves him stuck in Idaho, where he surprises himself by falling in love with the mountains and the local culture. He converts to Mormonism and marries Charlene Simmons—a perfect Mormon girl deeply dedicated to her church.

After a fifteen-year hiatus in Arizona, Kail moves his family back to Idaho to solve some unresolved issues between his wife and God. What he and Charlene find are shocking surprises beneath the surface of every beautiful thing, from the Idaho mountains to Charlene’s deceptively devout family. Acclaimed author Jack Harrell creates a world of complex and troubled characters, each seeking happiness from a God simultaneously familiar and mysterious, each wrestling with the doubts and eternal optimism integral to their faith.

Kail Lambert spends the summer after high school
graduation traveling the country, hoping to make it
all the way to San Francisco before returning home
to Illinois. However, a broken motorcycle leaves him
stuck in Idaho, where he surprises himself by falling
in love with the mountains and the local culture.
He converts to Mormonism and marries Charlene
Simmons—a perfect Mormon girl deeply dedicated
to her church.
After a fifteen-year hiatus in Arizona, Kail moves
his family back to Idaho to solve some unresolved
issues between his wife and God. What he and Charlene
find are shocking surprises beneath the surface
of every beautiful thing, from the Idaho mountains to
Charlene’s deceptively devout family.
Acclaimed author Jack Harrell creates a world
of complex and troubled characters, each seeking
happiness from a God simultaneously familiar and
mysterious, each wrestling with the doubts and eternal
optimism integral to their faith.

The author asks a big question: Who is responsible? One person in need of this information is Lon, who wonders why his marriage is falling apart. Lon thought his wife would re-initiate intimacy at some point. She doesn’t, and he sets out to find the man he thinks stands between them but only finds an apparition—and he still can’t fix his marriage.

In another story, the LDS prophet is drawn to s simpler time when he could wander out unnoticed and buy a candy bar. Church Security won’t let him outside on his own and Public Relations won’t let him wear anything but a suit and tie. Still, the impulse to be a regular guy for an afternoon is compelling. Can’t he make his own decisions? He can, but what are the consequences?

And then there’s Jerry, who passes three men in suits who are talking and laughing at the loading dock behind an LDS temple. One of them looks up, drops a cigarette and crushes it, then slips into a nearby car. Another man—someone who has made Jerry’s life miserable—taunts him, saying: “Jerry, your goodness is your enemy …and tell all your friends.” Who is responsible? Maybe it’s the author’s reverie that’s to blame, but his stories have a way of getting deep inside the psyche and haunting us.  

 Jacob Dennison believes that every good thing in life comes at a cost. His wife Pam’s miscarriage confirms that. Never mind that his boss at Food World has outrageous demands; that his father, a shady oil field equipment salesman, wants to make him a man in his own image. Never mind that his new friend Dwayne, a cunning drug dealer and occultist, wants nothing less than his discipleship. Jacob is willing to push beyond their expectations. His greatest struggle will prove to be his saving grace: he can follow only one voice—the one that speaks within him and drives him to the brink of ruin and ultimately a higher price than even he had imagined.

“This is a brilliant novel, written with language that crackles. The relationships are treated with force and poignancy. The power of the story is its authenticity and the character’s compelling conversion. He begins as a boy who refuses to accept responsibility, becomes the husband who longs for freedom, and at last the man who feels God’s grace in spite of himself and the self-destructive path that has beckoned to him with a siren’s allure. This brings a voice to Mormon literature that is clearly worth honoring.” —Marilyn Brown, author of The Wine Dark Sea of Grass