Written By Michael Bible
Narrated By Patrick Stillwell
Music By: Alec Sturgis
Length: 3 hrs and 3 min
Release Date: April, 2017
Print Publisher: Melville House
“A singular voice . . . He’s so open, so easy, so fluid, you’ll smile with joy turning every page.” —Barry Hannah
“Amid the sharp, laconic prose that its structure facilitates, Bible emerges as one of the most interesting and exciting new novelists in years…superbly written…a rich yet entirely unpretentious debut that, just as its conclusion marks a promising new start for its cast, marks a very promising start for its author.”—Electric Literature
“Poetic and with flashes of brilliance…If Sophia is any indication, we have a promising new writer here, who, like his main character, might be on a pilgrimage of his own.”—NPR
“[Bible’s] short, comic novel, which relates a bibulous Southern preacher’s perverse quest for sainthood, is full of small miracles.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Sophia
SUMMARY
Reverend Maloney isn’t the world’s greatest spiritual advisor. He drinks gin out of his coffee cup and has sex dreams about the Holy Ghost. His best friend Eli isn’t perfect either, but he’s a chess genius, which has to count for something. So Maloney decides that they should hit the road: Eli can win major chess tournament after chess tournament; Maloney can pocket Eli’s winnings while getting away from, well, certain situations.
Thus begins a grand adventure story, with the Reverend and Eli racing out of the South, pursued by Eli’s girlfriend and a blind head-hunter named, naturally, Jack Cataract, toward New York City–sin city, chess heaven, and a location with a blessed amount of places to . . . hide.
Funny and sexy, with the sly energy of Nicholson Baker and the author’s mentor, Barry Hannah, Sophia is a spectacularly original vision of sin and redemption that marks the debut of a bodacious new talent.
About the Author
MICHAEL BIBLE is originally from North Carolina. His work has appeared in Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, Al Jazeera America, ESPN: The Magazine, and New York Tyrant.
