Shawn Vestal: Daredevils

Daredevils is the thrilling new book by Shawn Vestal, who won last year’s PEN Bingham prize for his story collection,Godforsaken Idaho.

At the heart of this exciting novel, set in Arizona and Idaho in the mid-70s, is fifteen-year-old Loretta, who slips out of her bedroom every evening to meet a so-called gentile. Her strict Mormon parents catch her returning one night, and promptly marry her off to Dean Harder, a devout yet materialistic fundamentalist who already has a wife and a brood of kids. Then Dean’s teenage nephew, Jason, falls for Loretta. A Zeppelin and Tolkien fan, Jason worships Evel Knievel and longs to leave his close-minded community. He and Loretta make a break for it. They drive all night, stay in hotels, and relish their dizzying burst of teenage freedom as they seek to recover Dean’s cache of “Mormon gold.” But someone Loretta left behind is on their trail…

Shawn Vestal made his literary debut with Godforsaken Idaho, a story collection that won the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and was shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize. A graduate of the Eastern Washington University MFA program, his stories have appeared in Tin House, Ecotone, McSweeney’s, The Southern Review and other journals. He writes a column for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he lives with his wife and son.