In this epic, mythical debut novel, a newly-wed couple escapes the busy confusion of their homeland for a distant and almost-uninhabited lakeshore. They plan to live there simply, to fish the lake, to trap the nearby woods, and build a house upon the dirt between where they can raise a family. But as their every pregnancy fails, the child-obsessed husband begins to rage at this new world: the song-spun objects somehow created by his wife’s beautiful singing voice, the giant and sentient bear that rules the beasts of the woods, the second moon weighing down the fabric of their starless sky, and the labyrinth of memory dug into the earth beneath their house.

This novel, from one of our most exciting young writers, is a powerful exploration of the limits of parenthood and marriage—and of what happens when a marriage’s success is measured solely by the children it produces, or else the sorrow that marks their absence.

Praise for IN THE HOUSE UPON THE DIRT BETWEEN THE LAKE AND THE WOODS:

Starred Review “Bell puts the fable in fabulism… This spare, devastating novel… is as beautiful as it is ruinous. A tragedy of fantastic proportions, the book’s musical, often idiosyncratic prose will carry its readers into an unfamiliar but unforgettable world.” — Library Journal

“This debut novel from up-and-coming Bell…is a dark, intriguingly odd fable about what it means to be a father…The carefully wrought prose takes its cues from magical realism…to furnish their rustic abode…This challenging, boldly experimental attempt at myth-building may resonate with equally ambitious readers…” – Publisher’s Weekly

“IN THE HOUSE UPON THE DIRT BETWEEN THE LAKE AND THE WOODS is a big, slinking, dangerous fairy tale, the kind with gleaming fangs and blood around the muzzle and a powerful heart you can hear thumping from miles away. The story's ferocity is matched by Matt Bell's glorious sentences: sinuous and darkly magical, they are taproots of the strange.” — Lauren Groff, author of ARCADIA

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