A powerful, unforgettable debut: three estranged generations in Appalachia struggle with loss, poverty, and their individual demons, until an explosive climax brings them together in a most unexpected way.
In the hills and isolated mountain enclaves of southern Appalachia, Nana Grace has left her own family behind to become the "Shepherd" of a disaffected flock of worshippers that she keeps in thrall through both charismatic preaching and the dispensing of stolen drugs.
Her daughter struggles with breast cancer, the painful effects of its treatment, and the expectation to perform unceasing gratitude toward the evangelical community that reluctantly supports her out of a transactional sense of duty.
Her eldest son, Dalton, has been discharged from the army under conditions "Other than Honorable"; accused of breaching the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He drifts hesitantly home, pulled by guilt and love for his younger brother. Messy (christened Messiah at Grace's insistence) is awkward in a world that attacks difference. Guided by faith, tortured by abandonment, Messy eventually develops a warped moral code shaped by alienation and anger.
Fancy Gap is an unflinching look at the desperation that throws kerosene on the flames of opioid use, poverty, illness, and apocalyptic Christianity. Profound and captivating, violent and lyrical, it introduces Zak Jones as a compelling and original new voice in Canadian literature. ZAK JONES is a writer, literary scholar, and US Army veteran. A dual Canadian-American citizen, he grew up between rural North Carolina and Toronto. His short story, "So Much More to Say," won the Writers' Trust of Canada's 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and his story, "Love Handles," won the 2023 Norma Epstein National Award. Zak holds an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, where his dissertation project is entitled Bad Veterans: Outcasts, Terrorists, Assassins, and Whistleblowers in the American Narrative. He lives in Toronto.
