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Nickolas Butler

Biography

Nickolas Butler

Nickolas Butler is the internationally bestselling author of the novels SHOTGUN LOVESONGS, THE HEARTS OF MEN, LITTLE FAITH and GODSPEED, and the story collection BENEATH THE BONFIRE. Butler is the recipient of multiple literary prizes and commendations and has published articles, reviews, short stories and poetry in publications such as Ploughshares, Narrative and The New York Times Book Review, among others. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Iowa Writers Workshop, he now lives with his wife and two children on 16 acres of land in rural Wisconsin.

Nickolas Butler

Books by Nickolas Butler

by Nickolas Butler - Fiction, Literary Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Cole, Bart and Teddy, the three principals of True Triangle Construction, are hired to finish a project for a mysteriously wealthy homeowner. The grand house is unlike anything they’ve worked on before, and they’re sure it’ll put their name on the map. But the owner is intent on having it built in a few months, an impossible task made irresistible by an exorbitant bonus. Up against the critical deadline and the threat of a harsh Wyoming winter, the trio will do anything to get the money, even if it means risking their lives…or each other’s.

by Nickolas Butler - Fiction

Lyle Hovde is living a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg; daughter, Shiloh; and six-year-old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence and subsequent estrangement from her parents, Shiloh has finally come home. But in Shiloh’s absence, she has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced that Isaac has the spiritual ability to heal the sick. While reckoning with his own faith --- or lack thereof --- Lyle soon finds himself torn between his unease about the church and his desire to keep his daughter and grandson in his life. But when the church’s radical belief system threatens Isaac’s safety, Lyle is forced to make a decision from which the family may not recover.

by Nickolas Butler - Fiction

Camp Chippewa, 1962. Thirteen-year-old Nelson Doughty, a social outcast and an overachiever, is the Bugler, sounding the reveille proudly each morning. Yet this particular summer marks the beginning of an uncertain and tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan. Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces and turns his father’s business into a highly profitable company. And when something unthinkable happens at a camp get-together with Nelson as Scoutmaster and Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in-law as campers, the aftermath demonstrates the depths --- and the limits --- of Nelson’s selflessness and bravery.

by Nickolas Butler - Fiction, Short Stories

Young couples gather to participate in an annual "chainsaw party," cutting down trees for firewood in anticipation of the winter. A group of men spend a weekend hunting for mushrooms in the wilderness where they grew up and where some still find themselves trapped. An aging environmentalist takes out his frustration and anger on a singular, unsuspecting target. Together, the 10 stories in Nickolas Butler’s collection evoke a landscape that will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has traveled the back roads and blue highways of America.

by Nickolas Butler - Fiction

Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town --- Little Wing --- and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. Seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them --- both then and now --- fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of lovesongs and rivalries. Now all four are home, in hopes of finding what could be real purchase in the world.

written by Nickolas Butler; read by Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Gary Wilmes, Scott Sowers and Maggie Hoffman - Fiction

SHOTGUN LOVESONGS is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable audiobook --- a novel that once listened to will never be forgotten.