The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs by George Singleton

The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs by George Singleton

Celebrated Southern author George Singleton delivers a new collection of short fiction, brilliant and absurd, for fans of George Saunders and Tom Franklin

A restaurant owner runs into trouble when his wife starts a well-intentioned, poorly named rooster rescue. A boy navigates his parents' split between a stretched phone cord and a flooded septic tank. A drunk sequestered in the middle of nowhere wakes up to find a tractor parked in his driveway. And in a big Cadillac, a grandfather and a grandson and a wayward dog hit the road, searching for a life not downloadable, nor measured in bandwidth.

Loosely linked by characters and themes, The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs follows shysters and schemers, film buffs and future ornithologists, unlikely do-gooders, and the men who make up Veterans Against Guns in North America, all doing the best they can with what they possess in smarts and cunning. With Singleton's signature comic flair, these stories peer through the peepholes of small-town South Carolina into the lives of everyday martyrs--prodigal sons, wayward fathers, and all those who are a little of each.

"Legendary South Carolina absurdist Singleton weighs in with another rollicking collection. ... A Southern original adds to his gallery of Southern originals." --Kirkus starred review

"Singleton delivers an offbeat collection filled with Southern eccentrics. ... Singleton lights up the colorful and odd situations with wit and verve. Southern fiction fans will have a blast." --Publishers Weekly

George Singleton has published twelve books, including These People Are Us; The Half-Mammals of Dixie; Why Dogs Chase Cars; Novel; Drowning in Gruel; Work Shirts for Madmen; Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds; Stray Decorum; Between Wrecks; Calloustown; Staff Picks; You Want More: Selected Stories. He has also published over two hundred stories in magazines and journals like the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's One Story, Playboy, Georgia Review, Zoetrope, North American Review, Story, LitMag, Southern Review, Mid-American Review, Fiction International, The Quarterly, Carolina Quarterly, Agni, Oxford American, Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Black Warrior Review, Subtropics, Texas Review, and Glimmer Train. He lives in Spartanburg SC.