Books distributed by the Chicago Distribution Center
ISBN (pbk): 978-1-968209-02-5
Pre-order Only
Will publish April 2026
A Thousand Souls
A Novel in Stories
Catherine Tudish
A collection of fourteen stories interweaving the lives of three generations in the remote town of Neptune, Vermont.
Catching sight of the village of Neptune nestled in a remote Vermont valley, a traveler likens it to “a lost kingdom.” The fourteen stories in Catherine Tudish’s gorgeously crafted volume interweave the lives of three generations in this “embarrassingly pretty town” of “upward of a thousand souls” as they inevitably touch the outside world. A boy born of a secret affair travels by train to South Carolina for a first-time meeting with his respected father. A recent widow and Boston transplant solves the mystery of a teen girl gone missing. A beloved sheriff breaks up a drug operation, only to get busted himself for helping undocumented workers evade ICE. The disappointed wife of a rural mail driver presents him with a nude portrait—of herself. A shy girl with a speech impediment loses her stutter when she befriends and speaks to a black bear. Another boy has nightmares that seem to be the memories of a distant stranger’s tragedy.
Even as their loyalties and traditions are tested through loss, betrayal, and startling discovery, the characters in A Thousand Souls embody the belonging that comes from a close-knit community. Sharply observed, wry, and deeply tender, these stories resonate with both the intricacy and cost of interconnection as the years pass, and ordinary lives take unexpected turns.
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About the Author
Catherine Tudish is the author of the story collection Tenney’s Landing and the novel American Cream. She has taught writing and literature at Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and the Bread Loaf School of English. She lives in a village in central Vermont, where she teaches a community writing workshop at the local library and serves as one of the town’s three Fence Viewers.
Photo Credit: Kevin Tudish
Praise for A Thousand Souls
“Catherine Tudish’s A Thousand Souls is the work of a born story teller, a writer’s writer, with the evidence shining forth from every page. There’s a marvelous sense of place at work here, and a deep understanding of the human heart. A Thousand Souls is why good fiction still matters.”
—W. D. Wetherell, author of A Century of November and Chekhov’s Sister
“What a wonderful writer Catherine Tudish is and what a marvelous novel in stories she has written, so mysterious, so complicated, so beautiful. As one story opens into the next—a girl tames a bear, a boy briefly meets his father, a young woman takes French lessons, a sheriff loses his job—the web of connections, and our sense of this very particular place in rural Vermont, deepens. A Thousand Souls offers the richest of reading pleasures: the experience of lives lived over time, and the secret sorrows and joys of the community.”
—Margot Livesey, author of The Road from Belhaven