Radio Dark

by Shane Hinton

Overview

"Shane Hinton has a hold on a post-apocalyptic setting in a way that would make the author of the Book of Revelation proud."
-GEORGE SINGLETON, author of Staff Picks

A mysterious condition sweeps the country, leaving its victims in a catatonic state. The power grid fails and the world goes dark. Somewhere in Florida, where the sprawling suburbs meet a dying citrus grove, a janitor at a small community radio station, an FCC field agent, and a DJ attempt to restore order and humanity. They build a radio tower to recruit survivors. As newcomers arrive and occupy the homes of the affected, a community grows and thrives. But when supplies dwindle and more people succumb to the condition, a doomsday preacher arrives to test the limits of the community; and the radio tower, once seen as a marvel, begins to look like an abomination.

Radio Dark fuses Cormac McCarthy's visceral realism with Daniil Kharms' absurdist sensibility to create a uniquely surreal post-apocalyptic novel. As in Hinton's debut, Pinkies (a CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist), deadpan humor lurks just below the surface of this bleak tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941681015
Publisher:	Burrow Press
Publication date:	06/01/2020
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Shane Hinton is the author of the story collection Pinkies and editor of the anthology We Can't Help It If We're From Florida. He teaches writing at the University of Tampa and lives in the winter strawberry capital of the world.

Editorial Reviews

"Shane Hinton has a hold on a post-apocalyptic setting in a way that would make the author of the Book of Revelation proud. Radio Dark melds The Road with Mad Max with The Walking Dead. Welcome to the world of Memphis and Cincinnati, though not the cities. Welcome to the wondrous world of Shane Hinton." -GEORGE SINGLETON, author of Staff Picks

"A book about what it means to own and live inside a failing physical body, as well as a failing community body." -KRISTEN ARNETT, author of Mostly Dead Things

"Hinton shares Kristen Roupenian and Carmen Maria Machado's ability to conjure stealthy dystopia and define a sharp-edged line between reality and the dull insanity that lurks just beneath the universe his characters inhabit." -JULIA MAXWELL, bookseller at Literati Bookstore Ann Arbor, MI

"Questions I asked myself while reading Radio Dark: Is Florida anyone's proper home anymore? Are the punishments we deserve and our darkest aspirations one and the same? If we lost our voices and hands, would it help us know our souls? Do burning orange trees really smell like cheap candy? Is the whole purpose of naming your soul's disease to prove you have a soul? This book is the hoarse, rasping warning of a doom that feels deserved, of a slow-moving apocalypse that's both shocking and also a logical conclusion for an age of willful ignorance and spiritual paucity." -JOHN BRANDON, author of Further Joy

"A remarkable new young American writer, whose talent is likely to become progressively more vital and profound in the years to come."-MIKHAIL IOSSEL, author of Notes from Cyberground

"Hinton's understated yet sharp prose takes us to the cusp of dysphoria and then pushes us over the edge into a quietly spiraling horror. An unforgettable read." -STEPH POST, author of Miraculum

"A raw and propulsive novel that shivers with life and shimmers with hope." -MEREDITH ALLING, author of Sing the Song

"A morbidly surreal novel. Hinton's apocalyptic vision is rendered tenderly in this sadly-beautiful book. He nudges us to the brink of the radio tower without sending us tumbling over the edge. He compels us to listen for truth in the crackling jumble of noise and find hope in pockets of silence. Here is a shrewd writer with unabashed talent telling it like it is." -JASON OCKERT, author of Wasp Box

From the Publisher