Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Beneath the Bonfire: Stories
    Beneath the Bonfire: Stories
    Beneath the Bonfire: Stories
    Audiobook6 hours

    Beneath the Bonfire: Stories

    Written by Nickolas Butler

    Narrated by Luke Daniels and Andi Arndt

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Nickolas Butler's debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, has become an international bestseller and won numerous accolades, including France's Prix PAGE/America. Now, in Beneath the Bonfire, he demonstrates his talent for portraying "a place and its people with such love that you'll find yourself falling for them, too" (Josh Weil, author of The Great Glass Sea).

    Young couples gather to participate in an annual "chainsaw party," cutting down trees for firewood in anticipation of the winter. A group of men spend a weekend hunting for mushrooms in the wilderness where they grew up and where some still find themselves trapped. An aging environmentalist takes out his frustration and anger on a singular, unsuspecting target. One woman helps another get revenge against a man whose crime extends far beyond him to an entire community. Together, the ten stories in this dazzling, surprising collection evoke a landscape that will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has traveled the back roads and blue highways of America, and they completely capture the memorable characters who call it home.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateMay 5, 2015
    ISBN9781427261151
    Beneath the Bonfire: Stories
    Author

    Nickolas Butler

    Nickolas Butler was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His award-winning debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, was an international bestseller and has been optioned for film by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Butler graduated from the University of Wisconsin before attending the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and their two children.

    More audiobooks from Nickolas Butler

    Related to Beneath the Bonfire

    Related audiobooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Beth Macy

      Sep 17, 2018

      The best-selling author on dope sickness, the opioid addict next door and holding drug companies accountable

      2 min read

    • Article

      Behind the Dedications: Hunter S. Thompson

      Feb 20, 2017

      On February 16, 2005, Hunter S. Thompson was sitting in his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. Football season had just ended, which always left him morose, but he was also suffering from surgery-related pain in his hip and back, which made walking diffi

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson

      Nov 15, 2019

      The goal is that my sons, Griff and Patch, eventually don’t need me anymore. But I can’t reconcile that yet. So, again, I write about that anxiety. The post The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson appeared first on The Mi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      'It Just Felt Very Wrong:' Sherman Alexie's Accusers Go On The Record

      Mar 5, 2018

      Author Sherman Alexie issued a statement in his own defense last week after allegations of sexual harassment began to circulate online. Now, several of the women accusing him are speaking to NPR.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ask A Literary Consultant

      Sep 3, 2020

      Ask A Literary Consultant
      2 min read

    • Article

      American Myth: The Short, Beautiful Life of Breece D’J Pancake

      Jun 26, 2017

      The best American writer of his generation would have been sixty-five this week. The post American Myth: The Short, Beautiful Life of Breece D’J Pancake appeared first on The Millions.

      14 min read

    • Article

      Cj Carey

      May 19, 2021

      OCCASIONALLY, A WRITER CAN TELL YOU exactly how a book began life. In the case of CJ Carey (a pseudonym), she’d gone out for lunch with a friend, who had offered condolences over the 2018 death of her husband, the novelist Philip Kerr. But there was

      3 min read

    • Article

      'Wellness' Is A Perfect Novel For Our Age, Its Profound Sadness Tempered With Humor

      Sep 20, 2023

      Nathan Hill's stunning new novel about the stories we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time, is both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Beneath the Bonfire

    4/5

    34 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but I liked this collection very much and thought that the stories were all well written. There are 10 melancholy stories, and in all but one of which the protagonist is male. There is a fair amount of male bonding over drugs, alcohol, morel-hunting and chainsaws. The publisher's description says that the "landscape will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has traveled the back roads and blue highways of America". Well, although I grew up in a rural area, I admit that most of the characters in these stories felt as alien to me as Martians. It probably had something to do with the copious amounts of drugs and alcohol that most of the men consumed, generally leading to unfortunate events and sometimes tragedies. Nonetheless, each of the characters felt very real and fully fleshed out.I didn't really care for two of the stories. Sweet Light Crude is an ecoterrorism story. I guess torture is just not my thing. I also disliked reading about the spousal and animal abuse in In Western Counties, the only story with a female protagonist. The last two stories in the collection were my favorites. Train People Move Slow was a more optimistic story than the previous eight and I liked it a lot, but I'm also a sucker for cats. The last story, Apples, left me feeling good for days. That is certainly not the case with most of the other stories, which don't exactly leave you hopeful about the state of the human race. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 3/5
      I loved the writing and place. Some of the stories were too grim for me.
    • 5/5
      I bought this book from Nickolas Butler at the Lakefly Writers Conference. Nickolas is a great guy. His books are also great. Beneath the Bonfire was a great read. I love his approach to short stories. It is literary and yet still approachable. I found his characters and his settings, especially in the details to be uniquely Wisconsin. Anyone that has lived in Wisconsin will feel right at home. He describes the bars and the pickups, and the winter cold so well, he takes you right into the story.

      I especially like how his characters were interesting without being extreme. I love Raymond Carver, but so many of his characters were drunks that were on the edge and able to do anything. I liked that the characters in this book were in extreme situations, but were not desperate.
      To be clear, I need Raymond Carver, but I need stories like this as well.
    • 4/5
      Digital audiobook performed by Holter Graham, Luke Daniels and Andi Arndt In this collection of short stories Butler explores relationships: men and women; male bonding; fathers and children; people and the land. In one story a group of young couples has a “chainsaw party” … cutting firewood for the coming winter, and two long-term friends’ paths diverge. In another an aging environmentalist takes matters into his own hands after he hears news of a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And then there is the story of a group of men who annually hunt for morels in the woods of their youth, and find despair instead. A man and his wife work to clear out his recently deceased mother’s home, and he comes to a decision about their future. Two women help one another seek revenge against a man who has hurt many. A man inherits a family and grows into fatherhood. The ten stories are dark and mesmerizing, Butler’s characters are lonely and yet reaching out for connection. I recognize the landscape which can be brutally unforgiving for the person not experienced or equipped to survive the dangers of the north woods. I’ve been in these bars, hiked the wooded trails, fished on the pristine lakes (but NOT ice-fishing), stayed in remote cabins where you’re more likely to see deer or even a bear than another human. I could smell the wood smoke, hear the squeak as I walked across a snow-packed path, taste the butter-soaked morels, feel the sting of icy sleet and the almost uncomfortable warmth of a blazing fire. The audiobook is marvelously narrated by a trio of skilled voice artists. I have no idea which artist reads which stories, but they are all equally good. I can hear the gravelly, whisky-soaked, cigarette fueled rasp of a lonely man, and also the quiet, despair of a woman who has been beaten down by life. They give the listener the exuberance of youth and the quite confusion of an older woman’s encroaching dementia.
    • 4/5
      I loved Nickolas Butler's debut novel Shotgun Lovesongs. This, a collection of ten short stories, was released not too long after that one. I don't typically go for short stories -- for some reason I just prefer the longer format of novels -- and I wouldn't have normally picked this up, but because I fell in love with Butler's writing based on his novel, I wanted to give this collection a try. His writing in these shorter stories is nearly as good -- there's something about it that I really enjoy that I can't quite put my finger on. Most of his writing tends to center on northern Midwestern life and the people and traditions associated with it. Many, though not all, of the stories in this collection have a somewhat dark and sometimes disturbing undertone. I think perhaps that's what prevented me from rating this higher. As a reader I was starting to get a little depressed. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Shotgun Lovesongs, both because of the format & the more depressing story lines, but the quality of the writing was still there.
    • 3/5
      I loved the writing and place. Some of the stories were too grim for me.
    • 5/5
      Butler is one hell of a writer. Reading these stories is like sitting down with a man from each stage of life and hearing his confession. Amazing, beautiful stuff.
    • 5/5
      Wow, these stories feel like classics. I actually think I enjoyed this more than Shotgun Lovesongs.
    • 5/5
      “Beneath The Bonfire” by Nickolas Butler is the best collection of short stories I have read since Robin Black’s “If I Loved You I Would Tell You This.” Every story has power and depth, well-developed characters that elicit strong emotions and descriptive settings that made me desperately homesick for my native Wisconsin. Each story features characters struggling with some major issue, and I like that several don’t end well or have satisfying conclusions. My favorite was “Sweet Light Crude” with “Train People Move Slow” a close second. Oddly I found the title story by far the weakest in the collection, although still a good read. The highest praise I can give any author is what I offer here – I want to read his first novel and I can’t wait to see what he gives us next!