Twenty years ago, T. R. Pearson's A Short History of a Small Place was hailed as "an absolute stunner" (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post) and its hero, young Louis Benfield, was dubbed "a youth not as wry as Holden Caulfield, but certainly as observant, and with a bigger, even sadder heart" (Fran Schumer, The New York Times).

Now, older but not necessarily wiser, Louis Benfield returns in Glad News of the Natural World. Having moved to New York City from his hometown of Neely, North Carolina, in order to get a sense of the larger world, Louis is a modern-day Candide, looking for love and experience in all the wrong places. However, when tragedy strikes, he finds the maturity needed to be more than man enough for the job. "Louis makes a wonderful narrator of Glad News, mainly because he accepts just about everyone with humane resignation and understanding. He's the epitome of empathic tolerance. Louis eventually faces a situation that forces him to take charge of his life. And he does so with the humanity and wise humor that you'd expect from a lovable loser." -- Charles Ealy, The Dallas Morning News