Tender as HellfirePaperback, 1 August 2007

"Features some of the liveliest characters that one is apt to meet in a contemporary novel. Vividly described."--Publishers Weekly

"Extremely vivid. . . . Any number of novels have been written about unhappy childhoods and bizarre families, but this one surpasses many."--Kirkus Reviews

Joe Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down '76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives.

Joe Meno is the author of the novels Hairstyles of the Damned, The Boy Detective Fails, and How the Hula Girl Sings. He was the winner of the 2003 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction and is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.