About
"Powerful, startling. . . . This book is a wonder."--Susie Finkbeiner, author of Stories That Bind Us and All Manner of Things
"Ultimately a survival story--how we survive the evils we have both committed and omitted on our terrible and beautiful journey home."--John Blase, poet and author
"A poetic, heartfelt meditation on guilt, grief, grace, and forgiveness, reminiscent of both Dante's Inferno and Lost."--Anne Bogel, creator of Modern Mrs Darcy and the What Should I Read Next? podcast
"Beauty and melancholy and hope and weight woven together. Not to be missed."--Andi Cumbo-Floyd, author of the Steele Secrets series
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Once held captive and tortured on a mysterious mountain, Dan was lucky to have made it out alive. But freedom comes at a cost. Left with little memory of the horrific ordeal, Dan can recall one thing--his escape meant leaving his brother behind.
With each day that passes, Dan waits with the other survivors in hope of his brother's escape. But just as long-forgotten memories start rising to the surface, the sudden appearance of a wounded woman throws everything into question. As Dan struggles to know who to trust, he is caught once again in a paralyzing moral dilemma:
How far will he go to save the people he loves?
Shawn Smucker is the award-winning author of Light from Distant Stars, the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, and the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com.
Endorsements
"In the tradition of C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Neil Gaiman, yet with a style all his own, Shawn Smucker has invited us yet again into a magical story. Powerful, startling, and with a good dollop of heart, These Nameless Things will stick with readers long after they've read the final page. This book is a wonder."
Susie Finkbeiner, author of Stories That Bind Us and All Manner of Things
"Shawn Smucker owes me compensation for time lost--lost in his page-turner of a novel, These Nameless Things. I found it ultimately to be a survival story--how we survive the evils we have both committed and omitted on our terrible and beautiful journey home. The trip requires (spoiler alert) memory and forgiveness, and Smucker proves a worthy guide."
John Blase, poet and author
"These Nameless Things is an imaginative, dark, morally complex (and therefore realistic) exploration of the distorting effects of sin, guilt, hatred, and revenge on the human spirit. It seems to suggest that to a significant degree, people choose the confusion and darkness that can make their lives a hell, and that with help they can also choose to walk away from it (literally in this novel). With a setting seemingly just outside Dante's hell, Smucker's novel is something of a blending of the Divine Comedy and The Pilgrim's Progress, indebted to both but carving out its own path."
Daniel Taylor, author of the Jon Mote Mystery series
"Reading Smucker's These Nameless Things is like reading McCarthy's The Road while watching a performance of Waiting for Godot and listening to The Swell Season. It's beauty and melancholy and hope and weight woven together. Not to be missed."
Andi Cumbo-Floyd, author of the Steele Secrets series
"Shawn Smucker has written visionary youth fantasy stories, a dramatic novel about death, and a poignant memoir about caring for a refugee. Somehow it all comes together in These Nameless Things, an intense and mysterious novel that has shades of everything from Dante to Lost to The Pilgrim's Progress. These Nameless Things is an oddly redemptive story that I will never, ever forget."
Byron Borger, owner of Hearts & Minds bookstore
"A poetic, heartfelt meditation on guilt, grief, grace, and forgiveness, reminiscent of both Dante's Inferno and Lost."
Anne Bogel, creator of Modern Mrs Darcy and the What Should I Read Next? podcast
The Author
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Photo by: John Sanderson of Sanderson Images Shawn Smucker
Shawn Smucker is the award-winning author of Light from Distant Stars and These Nameless Things, the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, and the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with...
Continue reading about Shawn Smucker
Reviews
"Those who enjoy Jolina Petersheim, Carrie Stuart Parks, and Tosca Lee and who appreciate mind- and genre-bending fiction will want to add this to a reading list."
Library Journal
"In These Nameless Things, the edges of an earthly world bleed into the next. Trauma and guilt fold into an immersive fantasy that's eerie and precise in its world building."
Foreword Reviews