Praise for
The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine
“This good ole Southern gothic tale will keep you turning the pages.”
– Margaret Verble, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, author of Maud’s Line and Stealing
“This is a magical, moving and surprising work of fiction, one that speaks truth to power, not just in high places, but in the petty tyrannies of the day to day that control how we live, how we love and, in the end, how we are able to die.”
– John Burnside
Booker Prize judge 2015
and winner of the David Cohen Prize for Literature
“Christian Livermore’s The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine is a poignant and gripping exploration of justice, prejudice, and the complexities of the human mind. When Tertius, a soft-hearted young man who struggles with limited mental capabilities, is charged with his wife’s brutal murder, the reactions of the citizens of Euphrates, Georgia, reveal both the pettiness and heroism of small-town lives. With deft control of multiple narrative threads, Christian weaves layers of familial and town history into an intricate tapestry of the cruel realities of a system that doesn’t always protect the innocent. The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine expertly treads the murky boundaries between the real and the irreal, between culpability and blamelessness, and between iniquity and honor.”
– Cynthia Reeves, author of The Last Whaler and Falling Through the New World
“With multiple compelling voices, powerfully tangible detail, and a relentless march of events, Christian Livermore’s novel The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine submerges us in society’s cowardly propensity to ignore, resent, and frequently destroy individuals deemed inconveniently unconventional. The magic of this book is that, while depicting the violence of intolerance, it conveys a still-burning ember of compassion.”
– Robert Fromberg
author of How to Walk with Steve
“The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine is a timeless story about the sins of our fathers and those who have to pay the price. This heartbreaking book, told with compassion and insight, will make you cry and also remind you that there is hope for the misunderstood, for the downtrodden, for those who bear the burden of the sins of history. This book will make you believe in humanity and the power of literature.”
– Anne Raeff, author of Winter Kept Us Warm and Only the River
“In this terrific novel, populated by characters that are often broken in spirit, broken by circumstances, and yet beautifully resilient, Christian Livermore tells their stories in language that is at once lush and elegantly efficient. Difficult to put down, impossible to forget, The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine gives us a wonderful and rich understanding of the Deep South, with all its rough beauty and difficulties. Highly recommended.”
– Brad Barkley, author of The Reel Life of Zara Kegg
“In The Execution of Tertius Lafontaine, Livermore boldly, but tenderly, explores the broken parts of life fed by the frailty of moral character alive in each of us. Her captivating prose creates a world that pulls us in and demands unvarnished self-reflection.”
– Jeffrey Dale Lofton, author of Red Clay Suzie
“Weaving a harrowing tale of fragile, misfit characters, Livermore invites us to consider, then reconsider our yearning toward conformity, toward approaching the unconventional with fear, with intolerance, and in the end, with violence. She takes us beneath the surface of “normalcy” where we suddenly find ourselves clinging to the surprising strength and compassion of those we have mistreated.”
– R. Cathey Daniels, author of Live Caught
Praise for We Are Not Okay
‘Ineffably important...relentless and courageous and entertaining and upsetting.’
– Los Angeles Review of Books
“A moving meditation on American precarity. If, as Baldwin has written, home is an irrevocable condition, We Are Not Okay argues that the same might be said for poverty. Livermore is sensitive, insightful and provocative and her book is not to be missed.”
– Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“If you’re born white trash, do you ever stop feeling that’s who and what you are? Christian Livermore’s unadorned reflections on ‘class-passing’ are real and raw and nervy. In reading this book, you will see what Americans try to ignore: the damage being done by our class system, which distorts everything it touches. We Are Not Okay tells a far more powerful story than J.D. Vance did, in a truly honest voice – which is what’s been missing from most modern memoirs.”
– Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash
WE ARE NOT OKAY is a beautifully written, unsettling portrait of the failure of the American Dream. In it, Livermore gives us clearly wrought, moving examples of the ways in which the myth of America-as-meritocracy has crumbled. She deftly shows us what we already know – that liberty and justice are for the few lucky enough to have inherited them.
- N. West Moss, author of Flesh & Blood: Meditations on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life (Algonquin 2021)
Praise for The Very Special Dead
“Lyrical, poignant and perfectly grounded in the day-to-day lives of a beautifully evoked New England fishing town, The Very Special Dead deftly weaves together a compelling drama of social decay and personal loss and an uncanny excursion into the twilight zone that sits between the world we know and that undiscovered country from which, so they say, no traveller returns.”
– John Burnside, T.S. Eliot Prize- and Forward Prize-winning author and Booker Prize judge
“A sad, terrifying and wonderfully weird book. Livermore’s take on the medieval story of the Three Living and the Three Dead and what they might teach each other is a powerful update of the tale for the zombie age. Usually I have no use for zombies, but Livermore’s version of the revenant – which is, after all, quite a different thing, involving no plague, spells or necromancers – is a powerful indictment of an America in which the poor live in medieval conditions, utterly without help and crushed by a casual and all-encompassing class war. For the three men in this very atmospheric book, death is actually preferable to the life they lead in their gutted New England fishing town, and once they leave it (life, that is), in a striking re-do of the old theological idea of death-in-life, they are free to make some decisions about it for the very first time. A book that should win awards.”
– Sarah Tolmie, author All the Horses of Iceland and The Fourth Island
“A wonderful, haunting, atmospheric story that reinvents the Gothic novel for the modern world, Christian Livermore has achieved something quite unique and extraordinary in this tale of stolen lives and loves.”
– Gerard Woodward, twice Booker-shortlisted author of The Jones Trilogy
“The eponymous revenants of The Very Special Dead, Christian Livermore’s powerful and precisely observed novel, are more than terrifying supernatural entities. They are a timely indictment of an American Dream turned Nightmare which has condemned far, far too many good, hardworking people to terrifying half-lives of economic desperation. The Very Special Dead works at every level. It will do more than keep you turning pages deep into the night; it will wake you up to the everyday horrors all around us.”
– Dale Bailey, author of In the Night Wood
“Written with the crustacous eloquence of a ghastly sea-shanty, The Very Special Dead is a salt-soaked, brine-blasted fable that echoes with lean grief and life lost. You can nearly hear the voices of the dead lifting up from its haunted pages.”
– Clay Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
“Moving, profound, beautifully observed: here’s a vital book by a vital new writer. You’ll want to read everything she writes.”
– Jacob Polley, T.S. Eliot Prize-winning author of Jackself
“Christian Livermore’s crisp, clear prose will lead you into the afterlife and back again. Filled with humor and heartache, The Very Special Dead reminds us that the only thing that tethers us to this life are the relationships we make and the hearts we touch.”
– Jesi Bender, author of Kinderkrankenhaus
“The Very Special Dead is a melting pot of ideas, a bubbling cauldron of genres overflowing with imagination. This is an exciting new slant on the undead, but much more than that it is a powerful commentary on the oppressive forces that face working families today. Like a potent blend of Steinbeck and Matheson, The Very Special Dead offers a clear denunciation of the modern world where some come to view death as a preferable alternative to a life with crushing debt, no healthcare and little hope for the future.”
– Iain Maloney, author of Life is Elsewhere/Burn Your Flags