Hell's Bottom, Colorado

Winner of the Milkweek National Fiction Prize, in this collection of linked short stories, Laura Pritchett balances gritty material with genuine warmth and understanding of character. Hell€s Bottom is more than a ranch. Home to Renny, one of those women who prefers “a little Hell swirled with their Heaven,€ and her husband, Ben, who€s “gotten used to smoothing over Renny€s excesses,€ the ranch has been the site of births and deaths of both cattle and children, as well as moments of amazing harmony and clear vision. A day of haying turns violent in “A New Name Each Day,€ while in “Rattlesnake Fire,€ Ben and his estranged sister must decide whether to put aside their differences to save families trapped by a forest fire. In Pritchett€s masterful hands, the western landscape becomes a zone of familial crisis and, sometimes, transcendence.