Mid-summer’s here! Readers, why would you chain yourself to a doorstop novel? Publishers of all sizes, from the indies to the big houses, have in recent years gradually accepted and now actively develop novella fiction titles.
Don’t get me started on distinguishing these works solely on their length. Of course it’s more possible to rhapsodically lose yourself in world-building or in subtly shifting relationship arcs with hundreds of pages. But there are reading rewards specific to novellas: the shrinking cul du sac of possibilities for the pair of working ramblers in “Of Mice and Men.” The stark expression of time limitations that holds taut Dickens’ fanciful Christmas Eve night.
And consider the opportunities and limitations inherent to summer. You might want to get outdoors or take to the road, but what if you’ve gotten hooked (harpooned?) because you’ve started “Moby Dick.” Novellas are perfect for when your more-active plans are overcome by afternoon thunderstorms.
Two writers are coming to town at the end of July to show how they make a fast but lasting impact with readers.
Versatile veteran author Scott Alexander Hess’ latest is so saturated in rural Kentucky that you can feel the scratch of tobacco plants against your legs. “Drought” is labeled as a novel, but consider it more “novelty”—in a most complimentary sense. With multiple viewpoints, told in sections that alternate in extremes of chapter length, Hess embraces outsiders in his book’s organizational structure as well as his characterization. His main protagonist has internalized struggles with body image and socialization for decades.
He gets a possibly life-changing surprise, inheriting some gone-fallow acreage from an obscure uncle. By the time you can say “scaled-down John Irving,” the farmer-to-be has found that his move to new surroundings introduces him to new eccentricities and companionship, along with some risks and some chafing against parochial small-mindedness.
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There’s also mystery, courtesy of a troubled preacher who holds secret knowledge of the late uncle—and his confession sets off remarkable plot turns. Because this is a complete and complex story told over a limited length, there’s natural potential for revealing contrasts to appear in sharp relief. Hess shows himself to be trustworthy for bringing language and pacing together to become more affecting than many a typical novel’s slow burn.
One moment of the most tender intimacy here, for instance, is side-by-side with a heartbreakingly realistic, stumbling confrontation that quietly threatens a “forbidden love” so quickly as to give readers veritable whiplash. And to put some readers’ tears on the page…on the way to a conclusion with warmth.
Central Kentucky’s em j parsley offers the short novella “You, From Below.” A variety of episodes infused with dream logic are strung together after the framing of a quest (to deliver a message) and an apocalyptic inciting event (“earth and rock and architecture all merging as they fell”). The attendant absurdities are given a welcome swift kick of immediacy through evocative choices that are often sensation-rich (bees and honey; a man with a vulture head), and by conveying it all in second person. The author isn’t afraid to let personal anger and disappointment take their place while recalling lost community and family and considering how he can come to accept these in natural cycles of “rapture and decay.”
There’s much here that could have seemed stretched, rather than poetic, had it been taken to greater length. Here’s to authors who understand right-sizing!
Scott Alexander Hess and em j parsley will be at Carmichael’s Bookstore, 2720 Frankfort Ave., at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30.
The Events page at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com has more information.
This article appears in Jul 4-31, 2025.