The latest novel from critically acclaimed Southern storyteller Scott Gould, The Hammerhead Chronicles explores the effects of grief, racism, homophobia, revenge, love, and loss on an oddball cast of contemporary characters in a small, fictitious South Carolina town . . . oh, and it’s funny.

On the day Claude slaps down a credit card for an expensive racing bicycle, his soon-to-be-ex-wife passes away. As Claude begins a quest to pedal away from his marriage and his grief, we encounter the Southern eccentrics that orbit his world: his overly independent, rebellious teenage daughter; his foul-mouthed sister-in-law who deftly stalks her husband’s mistress; twin, gay bookstore owners who serve the profitable underground Confederacy market out of their “special” back room; the math professor possessing an attic full of rats and a penchant for revenge; a skinny bartender—named for a Marine base—who preaches a suck-it-up philosophy; and Claude’s recently deceased wife, observing it all from the Great Beyond, where she is annoyed by the lack of decent weather and by the troubled, tangled lives she left behind.

This ensemble of quirky, narrative voices dovetail for a fast-moving, comic story of longing and redemption, while flipping a number of Southern clichés on their ears.

Scott Gould was born, raised, and still lives in South Carolina. The Hammerhead Chronicles is his fourth book. He is a two-time winner of the SC Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship in Prose and the SC Academy of Authors Fiction Fellowship. Other honors include the 2022 Memoir Prize for Books, an Independent Press Award, an IPPY Award for Southern fiction, and the Larry Brown Short Story Award. Gould teaches creative writing at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities. He is always pulling for the Braves.

“Scott Gould’s newest book, The Hammerhead Chronicles, advances his reputation as a uniquely inventive contemporary master of the comic tradition in Southern literature. The storytelling here sizzles with wit and wild play, with plot that terrifyingly and thrillingly jumps the tracks, and with perfect storms of reliable and unreliable revelations.”

– Kevin McIlvoy, author of One Kind Favor

“A wild ride through the ups and downs of family and friendship . . . as big-hearted as it is hilarious. Skillfully weaving no less than seven points of view, including a ghost, and not excluding creepy infestations, Gould’s novel wittily spoofs the Southern gothic tale and made me laugh out loud.”

– Karen Brennan, author of Television, a memoir

“Scott Gould understands two great truths of southern storytelling: everyone is weird, and comedy and tragedy always hold hands. He is also a great novelist who knows that how a story is shuffled decides what it means. This book reads so fast and so funny that you don’t mind when it grabs you first by the lapels and then by something inside your chest.”

– Elise Blackwell, author of Hunger and The Lower Quarter

“Scott Gould captures with keen insight and uncanny observation the complexities of human relationships and their inevitable accompaniments of hilarity and heartbreak. Beyond the humor, this is a poignant story about the beauty of life and the enduring powers of hope and love. I loved this book!”

– Michel Stone, author of The Iguana Tree and Border Child

“Beautifully crafted, told in a chorus of original voices, The Hammerhead Chronicles evokes its characters in such a way as to render them somehow nextdoor familiar but also as mysterious and complicated as life itself. These people are just like the rest of us, in other words, great big messes one and all, and Scott Gould is honest and clear-eyed and willing to take risks in his rendering. I read these pages with serious admiration.”

– Michael Knight, author of Eveningland and At Briarwood School for Girls