Introducing…
How to Love in a World Like This
by Kipling Knox
The second of the Middling books…
When Morgan and Arthur trade city life for a small Illinois farm, their dream quickly unravels among hostile neighbors and a depleted land. The discovery of a corpse in their woods strains their marriage to a breaking point. As Morgan retreats to her old life in Chicago, and Arthur schemes to salvage the farm and win her back, the couple is drawn into a deeper conspiracy. Ultimately they face an ethical dilemma that might change the course of their lives. Darkly comic and sharply observant, this novel explores love and redemption in a fractured America, blending psychology and suspense in an intensely gratifying story.
How to Love in a World Like This continues from the story “Downriver,” which won the Chris O’Malley Prize for Fiction and was published in The Madison Review. It is the second of Kipling Knox’s Middling books, after Under the Moon in Illinois.
Praise for…
How to Love in a World Like This
"A triumphant return to Middling, the fictional town from Under the Moon in Illinois... Part mystery, part ghost story, part shrewd social commentary, and all love story, How to Love in a World Like This is a Midwestern Gothic masterpiece."
— Elaine Palencia
“There is something magical about Knox’s writing, haunting in its lyricism. Love is a form of magic, and his wonderfully realized characters remind us that magic is in all of us, no matter how broken we think we are. A remarkable, beautiful novel.”
— Frank Chadwick
“In this crafty novel, we watch events through two sets of eyes, each with a story of its own. But gradually we realize this is the larger human story we all are drifting in. Knox delivers what literary fiction offers at its best: a note of hope, a fragile sense of possibility, a glimpse of light we can believe.”
— Tamim Ansary
Title: How to Love in a World Like This
Publisher: Prairie State Press
Author: Kipling Knox
Cover design: Marcus Lehto
ISBN: 979-8987165638
* If you order direct, you’ll get a higher-quality print copy, but it will take a little longer than Amazon.
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Under the Moon in Illinois, stories from a haunted land
by Kipling Knox
Welcome to the fictional town of Middling, Illinois, where ghosts conspire to redeem a troubled community. Combining social satire with humor and tragedy, these interconnected stories explore the challenges we face in an anxious time. We follow a cast of midwestern characters, dead and alive: a farmer widow, an earnest criminal, a corrupt pastor, teen-agers on a date, a phantom hitchhiker, time-traveling professors, the spirit of a guilty ad man—and one brave woman journalist, in particular. At times dark, these tales are inherently hopeful.
Stories from this collection have been published or recognized in the Madison Review, Narrative Magazine, the TulipTree Review, the Bellingham Review, and the Whitefish Review.
You’ll find 11 original stories, richly illustrated with photos of the land that inspired them. Sample stories read by the author are available at Kipling’s website.
Title: Under the Moon in Illinois
Publisher: Prairie State Press
Author: Kipling Knox
ISBN: 979-8-9871656-0-7