Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Many thanks to:

Jesse
John
Wim
T Bone
Dan
Hannah
Shura
and Walker

Praise

ACCLAIM FOR SAM SHEPARD’S

great dream of heaven

“Vintage Shepard. . . . Precise and subtle. . . . [His] characters embody the plight of the iconic American male.”

—The Boston Globe

“These are tales from the frontier of his imagination, richly populated by rascals and renegades.”

—The New York Times

“[A] great collection. . . . Shaping words . . . is what [Shepard] does best. . . . The spare style is reminiscent of Richard Ford and Raymond Carver.”

—The Oregonian

“These are wonderful stories, by turns intuitive and well-wrought, satisfyingly unpredictable, smart, irreverent, knowledgeable about important human matters, often quite sweet, and at all times a pure pleasure to read. Mr. Shepard makes the form his own, and for that reason these stories are irresistible.”

—Richard Ford

“Shepard succeeds in putting his gifts as a playwright to fine and understated use in his short fiction. He has, as expected, a terrific ear for dialogue and an eye for telling details. . . . Few writers have a more powerful sense of both locale and dislocation.”

—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Mysterious glimpses into life in the heartland. . . . Extraordinary.”

—Vogue

“These stories will set you seeking the lost West. And even if it’s never found, the process works to rekindle the spirit of discovery.”

—The Bloomsbury Review (Editors’ Favorite Books of 2002)

“Everywhere, you find Shepard’s elegant, bare-bones prose, his unerring eye for detail and gift for the apt metaphor. . . . [His stories] have an understanding and compassion that go straight to the heart.”

— The Plain Dealer

“An unalloyed triumph. . . . A series of lean, fraught tableaux, Great Dream of Heaven shimmers with humor, absurdity, pathos and a stubborn taciturnity.”

—American Theatre

“Haunting. . . . Shepard’s prose recalls a smokier Raymond Carver.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Taut, well-told tales. . . . Vividly limned worlds. . . . Great Dream of Heaven, like all of Shepard’s work, bespeaks great talent and makes the most of his keen eye, reflecting an ear attuned to the lazy yet terse rhythm of the American West.”

—The Anniston Star

“Sharply etched. . . . Shepard can be a master of distillation. . . . This new collection . . . reveals [Shepard’s] multifaceted talents.”

—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Intensely focused [and] poetic. . . . Deftly reveal[s] how everyday life intersects with truths as large as the Western landscape. . . . The lack of pretension is like that of Shepard’s best plays, where symbolism and everyday life seem to have some ethereal connection.”

— The New York Times Book Review

“Memorable. . . . Startling. . . . Shepard at his best is a compelling, beautiful writer.”

—Book

“Full of tales of the bruised and broken-hearted, the ignorant savants and noble savages who populate [Shepard’s] beautifully weathered imagination.”

—Elle

“Reading Shepard’s stories is almost as pleasurable as realizing how lucky you are not to be a character in one of them.”

—The Miami Herald

“Really great. . . . [Shepard’s] writing is colorful, compact, often mournful and as natural as a letter from a close friend.”

—The Roanoke Times

“Startling. . . . Innovative. Shepard is indeed a writer who can employ his talent in various genres.”