The Local Stranger

Throughout this short story collection, James Calemine chronicles the lives of unforgettable men and women: bartenders, addicts, musicians, hustlers, lovers, and criminals. Their stories take the reader deep within his home state of Georgia and stretch to farther places South as his characters struggle with their pasts and future, their faith and their failures. The collection centers around the epic novella "Brother to Jackals" with each other story fitting comfortably into place around it.  The stories may be only loosely intertwined, but they are thematically connected by matters where souls are at stake.

  Calemine enhances The Local Stranger with his photography and several spoken word pieces done to original music by Bloodkin's Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter and produced by Grammy-winner Mark Neill.

   

  Jim Markel