{"product_id":"the-churchgoer-9780062864109","title":"The Churchgoer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSoon to be a an FX series starring and produced by Matthew McConaughey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA \u003cem\u003eLitHub\u003c\/em\u003e Most Anticipated Book of Summer \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"The Churchgoer\u003c\/em\u003e is a wonderful debut novel from a writer with more than a few tricks up his sleeve.\"--\u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA haunting debut literary noir about a former pastor's search to find a missing woman in the toxic, contradictory underbelly of southern California.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"He was finished with church, with God, with all of it. But to find the girl, he has to go back.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Mark Haines's former life, he was an evangelical youth pastor, a role model, and a family man--until he abandoned his wife, his daughter, and his beliefs. Now he's marking time between sunny days surfing and dark nights working security at an industrial complex. His isolation is broken when Cindy, a charming twenty-two-year old drifter he sees hitchhiking on the Pacific Coast Highway, hustles him for a breakfast and a place to crash--two cynical kindred spirits. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen his co-worker is murdered in a robbery gone wrong and Cindy disappears on the same night. Haines knows he should let it go and return to his safe life of solitude. Instead, he's driven to find out where Cindy went, under stranger and stranger circumstances. Soon Mark is chasing leads, each one taking him back into a world where his old life came crashing down--into the seedier side of southern California's drug trade and ultimately into the secrets of an Evangelical megachurch where his past and his future are about to converge. What begins as an investigation becomes a haunting mystery and a psychological journey both for Mark, and for the elusive young stranger he won't let get away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in the early 2000s, \u003cem\u003eThe Churchgoer\u003c\/em\u003e is a gripping noir, a quiet subversion of the genre, and a powerful meditation on belief, morality, and the nature of evil in contemporary life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eColeman, Patrick:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePatrick Coleman\u003c\/strong\u003e's writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eHobart\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eZYZZYVA\u003c\/em\u003e, Z\u003cem\u003eócalo Public Square\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eBlack Warrior Review\u003c\/em\u003e, and the \u003cem\u003eUtne Reader\u003c\/em\u003e, among others. His debut poetry collection, \u003cem\u003eFire Season \u003c\/em\u003e(forthcoming from Tupelo Press) won the 2015 Berkshire Prize. Coleman also edited and contributed to \u003cem\u003eThe Art of Music\u003c\/em\u003e, an exhibition catalogue on the relationship between visual arts and music (Yale University Press with the San Diego Museum of Art, October 27, 2015). He earned an MFA from Indiana University and a BA from the University of California Irvine. He lives in Ramona, California and works at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50409561129234,"sku":"9780062864109","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_462ed8f3-a412-4850-a333-d671d1898619.jpg?v=1729290627","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-churchgoer-9780062864109","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}