The Northwoods Hymnal is full of stories about connecting and coping, hoping that a little community will keep out the cold of winter. Hawley's characters, from young punk rockers to tight-permed, white-haired women, accomplish that in a myriad of ways: drizzling the world in almond bark, a sauna, and a jump in the snow, disinterring loved ones only to bury them closer to home. The stories are wholly Midwestern, unassuming and funny, and you'll find they stay with you through the bleak, help with the coping, without asking much in return. And that's just the stories. The songs, also quiet, also sneaky in the way they win you over, will keep you warm all the winter long. Word of Praise:  "There's nothing new under the sun, so we're told, but that just goes to show how wrong Ecclesiastes can be. Luke Hawley, a man of prodigious gifts, offers us a collection of twice-told tales: stories he's written once in music and once in prose. Not that they match precisely as these are fraternal, not identical twins, but they echo and talk to each other in fascinating ways. Can't read music? Okay then, go for the prose, which is a trip in itself: tough, compassionate, then suddenly wow, funny. Read, enjoy. Then grab somebody who can play the guitar and stick this book in front of him. Really, it's like nothing else."  --Pope Brock, author of the New York Times bestseller Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam  "Luke Hawley is a brand new American voice on the literary firmament who has written a collection of stories that are all but holy in their humanity.   His title The Northwoods Hymnal is so right. Though his characters range from the ancient to the youngest punk rock jerk offs, all I can say is that the emotional range is massive and the music that flows throughout this collection is at heart a hymn that underscores one finding ones way through the most amazing yet commonplace dilemmas (death, aging, love, families) in ways that too many of us have forgotten was even a possibility."  --Patricia Lear, author of Stardust, 7-Eleven, Route 57, A&W, and So Forth "A good love song tells a good story, and a good love story implies a good song. In this collection of both songs and stories, Luke Hawley hits all the right notes. His is a true voice of the balladeer." --Karen Gettert Shoemaker, author of Night Sounds And Other Stories and The Meaning Of Names "Luke Hawley's stories remind you of the best of winter. Of leaves losing their color, and the other side of sadness, like when you're in a bar and a song comes on that reminds you of Her of Him, but you get up to dance anyway. It's making snow angels and thinking of those other angels. It's smelling grass burning and feeling your own heart burning. These are the stories about cold and the blues and the way humans walk through all that muck and strange air and find passion." --Kate Gale, author of Mating Season and managing editor of Red Hen Press

The Northwoods Hymnal

Literature & Fiction

Hawley, Luke

Literary

River Otter Press

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Books by Hawley, Luke

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hawley, Luke. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Northwoods Hymnal