Tell Everyone I Said Hi by Chad Simpson

Chad Simpson's debut collection Tell Everyone I Said Hi arrived in the mail the other day, a full month before I expected it, and even though I'd been lucky enough to read most of these stories in the past -- some in manuscript form and some in their print and web homes -- I immediately dropped everything and read them straight through again, curious to know what they'd add up to when placed up against one another in a book.

I have to tell you, it was just as great as I thought it would be.

There was the very same subtle, down-to-earth, heartbreakingly authentic voice I first read and loved in a fiction workshop ten years ago this fall and have continued to love ever since. If you want to know how real people live in this part of the country, what they feel and think and do and maybe sometimes wish they hadn't done, he's the writer to turn to. If beautiful language is your thing, if you live for those perfect lines that cut you to the bone, then he's the writer to turn to. As I finished reading, it began to dawn on me that soon a lot more people are going to recognize his talents, that soon a lot more people are going to be buzzing about his perfect sense of gesture and detail, his impossibly perceptive characterization, his fascination with everyday mystery, his big fat Midwestern heart. 

I suggest you pick up a copy and see these things for yourself.