The Great Work

One of Lit Hub’s Top 15 Novels You Need to Read This Fall

“Costa’s genre-defying debut novel is a philosophical page-turner about the end of the American frontier, the horrors of war, the greedy destruction of pristine wilderness, and the human connections that give hope and meaning to it all. Not to be missed.”—Booklist

“A moody, atmospheric, and singular novel which navigates corners of American history through the complicated territory of horror, the monstrous, and the heroic.”—Kelly Link, best-selling author of The Book of Love

“The Great Work is a vision of America as both homeland and horror story. And it is also just a good ol’ page-turner, the kind of dark tale that delivers on every promise it makes.”—Joseph Fink, cocreator of Welcome to Night Vale

“Costa’s ripsnorting debut is a wild ride through freaky old America: Backwoods alchemists, a sadistic reverend judge, an animalist cult, and a quest for a primeval monster of nightmares come together in a hell-for-leather frontier yarn packed with action, wonder, and heart.”—James Kennedy, author of Bride of the Tornado

Sheldon Costa is an award-winning fiction writer who has been published in the Georgia Review, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, and other outlets. He holds an MFA from the Ohio State University and lives in rural Missouri with his wife and three cats. This is his debut novel.

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