Well, one thing I’ve learned is not to over describe. The tendency is to think, the more description, the more clarity. But I don’t think that’s true. Say I want to describe a vision of three green apples floating in mid-air above a sunlit table. Right now, a first-blush image has appeared in my head, and in yours. But if I go on and tell you that the apples are in a black bowl, that the bowl is also floating, that the table is white marble, and that the sunlight is coming from a dormer window above the table… the more I pile on, the more you have to go back and revise your initial image.
You want to give just enough detail, then let the reader fill in the rest. You’re trusting your reader this way, giving them agency. Reader, you and I are creating this book together. Too much description risks alienating them.
–Jaime Quatro, InterviewFiction Matters
What booksellers are saying about Two-Step Devil
- Jamie Quatro’s Two-Step Devil is magnificent. While scavenging for pieces for his religious folk art, the Prophet sees a young girl at an Alabama filling station with zip-tied hands. Like the visions he paints, this is a sign from God. The Prophet forms a plan to rescue Michael and send her to the White House to share his messages regarding the moral state of the nation. Quatro’s writing has often explored the divine but Two-Step Devil takes this to a higher plane with an unforgettable reconceptualized devil. Quatro takes great risks writing of loss, faith, and survival through both her tone, lyricism, and technique. This book is dead serious, yet funny, and the skill with which Quatro addresses abortion rights, addiction, and sex trafficking is exceptional.
― Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia | BUY
- An emotionally tumultuous and wholly unforgettable read. Through the character development of both the Prophet and Michael, his “Big Fish” and unexpected companion, you will delve into a deep conversation of the Christian faith, where you are confronted by the themes of salvation, belonging, and the human condition. Quatro’s elegant yet gritty prose will have you questioning what it truly means to be a good person. This book is a must-read for dark, esoteric literary fiction, or for those who are looking to see the world from a new perspective.
― Catherine Pabalate, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
- Such lyrical, moving writing. This is the story of the Prophet, an artist who lives alone in the woods and sees visions of God has decided he must save a young woman he sees is handcuffed and being trafficked. An examination of religion, the losses we face, our community and more. A perfect work of southern fiction.
― Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina | BUY
- SWhat begins as a novel reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor, eventually evolves — or perhaps devolves — into something different. This novel might be a lot of things, but first and foremost it is just plain ol’ creative. Quatro has a hell of a narrative voice, and more or less seamlessly works in changes in form and point of view, each which serves the story and pushes it to another level. I really appreciate that she is not afraid to go there, if there is indeed where she needs to go. Two-Step Devil is a powerful novel about the world we live in today. It is tragic, but not without a sense of humor. Put this one on your list for September.
― Caleb Bedford, Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi | BUY
About Jaime Quatro
Jaime Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. Quatro’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, the New York Review of Books and Ploughshares. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and Maison Dora Maar, and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. Quatro lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
