North of Ordinary

<p><i><b>The long-awaited return of a quintessentially American storyteller</b></i></p><p></p><p>“You’re as likely to be hit twice by lightning on a Monday as see a wood chipper pull a man into its maw.”</p><p>So begins <i>North of Ordinary</i>, John Rolfe Gardner’s virtuosic story collection of survivors getting by despite the odds in a shifting world. In these pages, we meet a nervous young apprentice to a weathered tree climber; a dangerously obsessed student at a Southern Bible college; an attractive schemer trying to build an audience for her tiny radio station; an undercover, cross-dressing lawman whose friendship changes the life of a deaf child in a suburban cul-de-sac; and an elderly Black mason whose knowledge of the town’s history harbors truths that shake his visitor’s foundation.</p><p>Surprising, touching, and deeply humane, the ten stories of <i>North of Ordinary</i> offer an intimate, revelatory look at our fractured society and pull us together through the power of art.</p>