Kail Lambert spends the summer after high school
graduation traveling the country, hoping to make it
all the way to San Francisco before returning home
to Illinois. However, a broken motorcycle leaves him
stuck in Idaho, where he surprises himself by falling
in love with the mountains and the local culture.
He converts to Mormonism and marries Charlene
Simmons—a perfect Mormon girl deeply dedicated
to her church.
After a fifteen-year hiatus in Arizona, Kail moves
his family back to Idaho to solve some unresolved
issues between his wife and God. What he and Charlene
find are shocking surprises beneath the surface
of every beautiful thing, from the Idaho mountains to
Charlene’s deceptively devout family.
Acclaimed author Jack Harrell creates a world
of complex and troubled characters, each seeking
happiness from a God simultaneously familiar and
mysterious, each wrestling with the doubts and eternal
optimism integral to their faith.

A native of southeastern Illinois, Jack Harrell is the author
of Vernal Promises, which won the Marilyn Brown Novel
Award, and A Sense of Order and Other Stories, awarded
best short story collection in 2011 by the Association for
Mormon Letters. His book Writing Ourselves: Essays on
Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism won the 2017 criticism
award from AML. Harrell has published on topics ranging
from Mormon literary theory to the aesthetics of
death metal music. He teaches writing at Brigham Young
University–Idaho.