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"The Samaritan" by Fred Venturini
Dale Sampson lives in isolation, hiding a super-human gift that could change the course of human history—a gift he believes he doesn't deserve. He is unemployed and unmotivated—a fractured friendship, love lost, and the tragedies of childhood have locked him in place. Empty days tick away until a chance encounter with a woman from his past sets in motion one last shot at redemption and love—a spiral of small-town violence that will end a thousand miles away, with his flesh as the battleground, and millions will tune in to watch . . .
Praise for The Samaritan
Fred Venturini is an awesomely talented
writer, and he proves it on every page of The
Samaritan. Stretching artfully from the shabbiness of life in a small
Illinois town to the glitter and greed of Hollywood, this first novel about a
shy, emotionally damaged loser with a bizarre but coveted ability to regenerate
his vital parts is one of the most engaging and ultimately satisfying that I've
had the pleasure to read in a long time.—Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff
Reading this was like finding an
autobiography I forgot I’d written. Like Venturini had access to all my secret
thoughts. It was strange and wonderful, and I’d pay to do it again.—Stephen
Graham Jones, author of It Came from Del Rio
The Samaritan gives those of us who love well-crafted
offbeat literature a reason to cheer.—Margaret Brown, Shelf Unbound
Fred Venturini’s writing is incredibly
captivating and never misses a beat. The flow of his prose softly lulls and
embraces the reader while hurtling them toward the inescapable train wreck of
life’s manic ups and downs. With a style so complex in its simplicity and so
pleasurable to read, The Samaritan fuels a reader’s desire to explore
much more of Fred Venturini.—Renee C. Fountain, New York Journal of Books
The
Samaritan is the sort of debut
that catches a reader off-guard. It lures you in with one thing then plays bait
and switch, giving you something more than you could have ever expected, a
perfect mix of disturbing and uplifting.—Erik Smetana, founding editor, Stymie Magazine
Forget trying to catch your breath—just buckle your
seatbelt and plant yourself where you can dive into The Samaritan
without looking up. A gritty novel that blends boys and bravado, lust and loss,
hope and hate, baseball, reality TV, and a broadband of the bizarre, The
Samaritan is gripping well beyond the last word.—Nancy L. Baumann,
Stonebrook Publishing
It’s not for the squeamish, nor the faint of heart.
But if you are neither of those, don’t miss it! Explicit, furious and
sensational with tight, impressive writing, and lines and phrases that I
suspect will linger for me, all moving a fantastical plot made believable by
its humanity. It’s about loss, regret, guilt and loneliness. It’s about the
illusion of healing. It’s about hope, when by all rights, there should be none.
It’s about giving up and starting over. Regeneration, indeed. If only for the
soul.—Regina
Till, St. Louis author
The Samaritan blends memoir and Joe R. Lansdale buddy action with Chuck Palahniuk’s
razor wit, but with more humanity and less nihilism and misanthropy. Engaging, funny, and intelligent.—Jacob
Gustafson, Toxic Graveyard
The Samaritan does what too few novels these days are able to
do—combine character and story into a thought provoking and highly entertaining
read. Venturini has created a world that envelops, suspends disbelief, and most
importantly rivets an emotional connection between character and reader. It’s a
gripping read.—Josh Covington, author of In
Search of Monsters
