Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club

By turns savage, biting, funny, poetic, and heartbreaking, Megan Gail Coles's debut novel rips into the inner lives of a wicked cast of characters, exposing class, gender, and racial tensions over the course of one Valentine's Day in the dead of a winter storm.

Valentine's Day, the longest day of the year.

A fierce blizzard is threatening to tear a strip off the city, while inside The Hazel restaurant a storm system of sex, betrayal, addiction, and hurt is breaking overhead. Iris, a young hostess, is forced to pull a double despite resolving to avoid the charming chef and his wealthy restaurateur wife. Just tables over, Damian, a hungover and self-loathing server, is trying to navigate a potential punch-up with a pair of lit customers who remain oblivious to the rising temperature in the dining room. Meanwhile Olive, a young woman far from her northern home, watches it all unfurl from the fast and frozen street.

Through rolling blackouts, we glimpse the truth behind the shroud of scathing lies and unrelenting abuse, and discover that resilience proves most enduring in the dead of this winter's tale.

Author: Megan Gail Coles
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Published: 09/22/2020
Pages: 440
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781487001711

Review Citation(s):
Foreword 08/26/2020
Booklist 09/01/2020 pg. 39