Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

When 17-year-old Luke Hunter foretells the death of his friend with freakish accuracy, life gets complicated, fast. Everyone in Stokum, his rank little pinprick of a hometown, knows about the premonition and wants to know more. But Luke holds everyone—the local news crew, his buddy Fang, the Polish widow next door—at arm’s length as he lurches through his own personal minefield studded with previously unconsidered existential ponderings, Christian fundamentalists, a missing girl’s frantic mother, and a dream girl who isn’t his. Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet is a darkly comic coming-of-age novel that nails contemporary youth culture and sits comfortably alongside the recent offerings by Miriam Toews and DBC Pierre.