Prayers for the Dead

The story of the Workman family comes to life in ten interlocking stories covering three generations.

“The clarity and purity of Dennis Vannatta’s Prayers for the Dead stems from his deep awareness that local history is always the secret history — and perhaps most telling portrait — of any era. In creating Sunday’s Hollow, Missouri, he aligns himself with the great tradition of rich fictional microcosms, with Winesburg, Spoon River, and Yoknapatawpha, and Vannatta serves his legendary forebears with distinction.”— David Wojahn