National Treasures

"In his first collection of stories, McLeod catalogues with wit and insight the lives of characters who are brash, devious, lonely and troubled. In prose whose rhythmic lyricism often unspools like epic poetry, Charles McLeod constructs astonishingly vivid portraits of contemporary Americans--male escorts, a widowed farmer, a drug-addled orphan, an ex-Amish kid on rumspringa, and a narrator auctioning off a list of personal items--as they strive to navigate a contemporary culture they can't quite comprehend. Fearless and virtuosic, Charles McLeod proves himself in each of these twelve tales to be a master storyteller, and National Treasures is--as its title suggests--jam-packed with riches." -Matthew Vollmer, author of Future Missionaries of America "These stories are a portrait of America in all its breadth...Charles McLeod knows the whole country through its ill-fitting parts and people. There are moments of wild candor and insight that crack the surface of daily life." -Salvatore Scibona, author of The End "McLeod shows he's a craftsman that cares about the sentence and all its possibilities. A powerful and inventive collection of stories that matters." -Peter Nathaniel Malae, author of What We Are and Our Frail Blood