A Scarecrow’s Bible

Author: Martin Hyatt

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 I had read this book and somehow would get lost in text. In some parts I would read 2-3 times just to make sure I had read it right to get it to connect with the next topic matter. A small book but if you get side tracked, you’re lost. With that in mind, it took me a little longer than normal to read 201 pages. Unless you’re a very avid and focused reader then I’d say go for broke; but if not, try a different one.

In a house trailer in rural Mississippi, Gary, a married Vietnam veteran, addicted to drugs, haunted by memories of the past, is on the brink of collapse. Just when he thinks the dream of another life is over, the unspeakable happens. He falls in love with a frail, ghostly younger man who reminds him of youth, beauty, and the possibility of a life beyond the prison he has created for himself. A Scarecrow’s Bible is about what happens when love occurs at the most unexpected moment. It is the story of how working-class men and women in a small town adapt to changes that somehow seem impossible. It is a novel of hope and transformation that challenges our ideas about diversity and social change, breaking your heart all the way.

“The writing is so skillful it’s hard to believe that this is a debut. If this is a gay novel, it’s unlike any other I’ve ever read.” – Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story

“The characters in A Scarecrow’s Bible are the kind of people novelists too often discard as insignificant and unworthy of our Notice. In Martin Hyatt’s compassionate hands they come fully to life in all their haunting despair.” – Jaime Manrique, author of Latin Moon in Manhattan