In 1545, in a remote Carpathian monastery, a tormented monk carves a throne from black oak felled beneath a blood moon. Its armrests are clawed hands straining to seize, its seat a lattice of thorns, its back an inverted Last Judgment where demons drag screaming angels into hell. Cursed in its final hour by a dying anti-cardinal, the Whispering Throne grants its sitter visions of tomorrow—exactly twenty-four hours ahead—but always two paths: one true, one the perfect, smiling lie. Choose w...

In this fresh collection of "Roughneck Grace" columns, New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry reinforces his reputation as a writer navigating between the transcendent ("The conga line was no longer a line, but rather a fluid knot of nearly a thousand happy children winding in and around itself throughout the aisles of the auditorium while Cyril Paul and the Calypso Monarchs played from the stage."), the quotidian ("Outside my window the June evening is winding down a...

A part-time emergency medical technician humorously chronicles life in a small Wisconsin town, featuring tales of romance and auto repair.Hilarious and heartfelt, Truck: A Love Story is the tale of a man struggling to grow his own garden, fix his old pickup, and resurrect a love life permanently impaired by Neil Diamond. In the process, he sets his hair on fire, is attacked by wild turkeys, and proposes marriage to a woman in New Orleans. The result is a s...

Brief essays by New York Times bestselling author Michael Perry on memorials and mercy, storms and farewells, family and fowl, barnyard ballets, the Sunday night sads, the wisdom of roadies, cucumbers and kindness, quotidian asparagus, appropo malaprops, pickleball, sushi boats and weird TV, the poetics of garlic, contrails, Mobius mind-grooves, quietude, Christmas tree injuries, cats, waffle houses, puffy partridges, bonfire bonhomie, dating in a hearse, and more. Gathered from his most r...

When farmer Harold wakes to find his wife dead beside him in bed and snow threatening to crush the last life from his dwindling farm, he takes drastic steps toward a fresh start. Set in a world of stark wintry beauty, Forty Acres Deep is the brief, unrelenting tale of one person's attempt to make sense of a world he no longer recognizes while pitilessly calling himself into account. Seamed with grim humor and earthy revelations, it is an unforgiving story...and yet leaves open the...

Another in a series (including From the Top, Roughneck Grace, Million Billion, and Peaceful Persistence) of collected brief essays by New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry. "Although these pieces were written during times of unrest and pandemic, they drew on human connection," says Perry. "Week after week, slowly at first, and then regularly, I received messages, emails, comments, and sometimes even a handwritten note from readers who weren't looking to me for advice...

Did you ever have a recurring dream only to wake up one day and find it was NOT a dream?Wembley is an average and very successful fourteen-year-old. Everything comes easily to Wembley: the good and the bad; but still not without some effort. Of Welsh origin himself he can trace his ancestry back to both the Picts and the Celts. Once enemies, this proud warrior blood is now combined and flowing through the veins of our 21st Century youth. His parents had le...

The beloved memoirist and bestselling author of Population: 485 reflects on the lessons he’s learned from his unlikely alter ego, French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne."The journey began on a gurney," writes Michael Perry, describing the debilitating kidney stone that led him to discover the essays of Michel de Montaigne. Reading the philosopher in a manner he equates to chickens pecking at scraps—including those eye-blinking moments when the bird gobbles something too...

New York Times bestselling humorist Michael Perry makes his fiction debut with this hilarious and big-hearted tale, a comic yet sincere exploration of faith and the foibles of modern life that blends the barbed charm of Garrison Keillor, the irreverent humor of Christopher Moore, and the audacious insight of Chuck Klosterman.Life is suddenly full of drama for low-key Harley Jackson: A woman in a big red pickup has stolen his bachelor’s heart, a Hummer-driving predatory dev...

New York Times bestselling author, humorist, and newspaper columnist Michael Perry returns with a new collection of bite-sized essays from his Sunday Wisconsin State Journal column, “Roughneck Grace.” Perry’s perspectives on everything from cleaning the chicken coop to sharing a New York City elevator with supermodels will have you snorting with laughter on one page, blinking back tears on the next, and--no matter your zip code--nodding in recognition throughout.

What if the person you came to care for most was the only one who stood between you and what you wanted most?The conquest for the eradication of the Dark has been taken up by the second generation. Daniel’s children, and the children of his associates are now embroiled in the great quest to rid the Realms of the Darkness. Daniel’s eighteen-year-old daughter, Caelith, is on a quest: to distance herself from the ways of her father. On this quest she meets an ...

“You can read Michael Perry’s Coop as an outrageously funny comedy about a semi-hapless neophyte navigating the pitfalls (and pratfalls) of the farming life. Please do, in fact. But scratch a little deeper, past Perry’s lusciously entertaining and epigrammatic prose, his ultra-charming combo of Midwestern earnestness and serrated wit, and you’ll find a reflective, sincere, and surprisingly touching-at times, even heart-cracking-story about a man struggling to put down roots.” — Jonathan Mi...