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Coventry Novello Festival Press Winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award Despite promises to his dead mother never to follow in the footsteps of his father, Calvin Gaddy takes a job at Coventry Prison. He soon finds himself snared in the literal poison of Coventry—and in a cell of his own making. His dilemma is further complicated by his wife’s harrowing pregnancy, and his unavoidable relationship with Pitch, a self-styled prison conjure man. It results in a chain of murderous, surreal events that propel Calvin, his entire family, and the prison itself toward inevitable conflagration. Calvin is faced with sacrificing everything he believes in. He will come to realize that in the hellish world of prison, there is no middle ground. Joseph Bathanti’s prose is as blade-sharp as a prison shank—and it dances deftly between two worlds; one of brutal reality and another of inexplicable hauntings.
Reviews “Joseph Bathanti takes readers deep into a world growing larger every day: prison culture. At the same time, he explores the hurtful and joyful aspects of family, a human condition as basic as death itself. His sensibilities give rise to scenes that are profound, gritty—and hard to forget.” “Joseph Bathanti’s powerful new novel, Coventry, takes place in a rural work camp but deals subtly and intelligently, in prose that ranges from the incantatory to the hallucinatory, with many types of imprisonment. These characters struggle, as we all do, with tradition and history, with fate and will. Coventry is an incendiary and original novel of ideas and excruciatingly exact details. As gritty and disturbing as it often is, it is also a terribly beautiful piece of truth-telling.” “Joseph Bathanti writes with a power rooted in his own first-hand experience as he draws readers into a disturbing world of captors and their captives. With its unforgettable characters and thunderous conclusion, Coventry reveals what we are all capable of: great horror—and great humanity.” “Winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award, Coventry is a dark novel set amid the walls of an unforgiving prison. Author Joseph Bathanti, a teacher and VISTA Volunteer worker for the North Carolina Prison system, weaves a harrowing story about a man who takes a job at Coventry Prison and rapidly becomes ensnared in a cell of his own making. Stress upon his life comes from his wife's difficult pregnancy and a chain of dark, murderous events taking place in the prison. A suspenseful novel of real-world violence, ghostly hauntings, and terrible choices that leave no room for middle ground.”
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