"Eerie, erotic, and magical, this book of loosely connected stories delves deep inside the consciousness of American Mormons. Set mostly in the South, Townsend's tales feature Mormons with a lot on their minds: environmental collapse, church politics, racism, and homophobia. But mostly they think about transgressing the church's restrictions on sexuality. "She felt guilty for sinning," Townsend (himself a Mormon) writes of one character, "but there was something exciting about it, too." Some of the stories' plots wander into the supernatural—a girl is visited by the ghost of religious leader Joseph Smith's wife, a woman's breasts come alive after her silicon implants interact with electricity—but Townsend keeps his stories grounded despite the fantastic elements, allowing him to reveal what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Publishers Weekly
TableOfContents
The ghost of Emma Smith
Nursing wounds
Murderers of old men
Betty's dream date
The bonds of hell
Working out
Twenty-six years
Zombies for Jesus
The mark of Abel
Hairdresser to the Gods
Counting nozzles
Shark among the whales
The Bishop's confession
A life of their own
Noseless Lesbian Murderers
Tilly the barbarian
