First Blurb for my latest Novel THIS VALE OF TEARS

I'm so thankful to the brilliant Karen Bender for lending the following blurb to my latest novel THIS VALE OF TEARS, out in October with CJ Press:

"Daren Dean's spectacular, distinct writing in "This Vale of Tears" brings us into the vivid and memorable worlds of the Scofield and Phelps families. This is a beautiful and affecting novel, and Daren Dean is a unique and powerful storyteller of the American South." --Karen Bender, National Book Award Finalist and author of Refund, Like Normal People, The New Order, and others

This Vale of Tears (Due Out in October 2021 with CJ Press)

A Novel by Daren Dean

Book Synopsis

Daren Dean weaves together the stories of a sprawling cast of incorrigible and sometimes violent characters each bent on their own quest to uncover meaning and find a place in the world. It is the ongoing fable, the clash of good and evil in the lives of the people of rural Missouri. This Vale of Tears follows the interwoven lives of Troy Scofield, determined to kill his wife's older lover; Royce Scofield, a truant who steals a baby in a jar of formaldehyde leading to his transformation as the boy of God; Theron Beecher, an old man who sometimes hears the voices of the dead telling him to take care of the embattled Scofields; Ruby Phelps, a fierce matriarch determined to exact her revenge on the Scofield family; Jaelyn Phelps, a young woman who finds the strength to escape her family's overbearing confines and follow her heart's own song; when Troy and Jaelyn meet, they form an instant bond that will take them on a cross country trip through the south in an effort to escape the strangling family ties of the past in the dark heart of the Little Dixie.