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The Whirlpool of Lebanon

by Will Pass

A miracle stirs a Kansas town

Regular price $17.10 USD
Regular price $28.51 USD Sale price $17.10 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    Kirkus Reviews “Get It” selection

    Identified as a Kirkus Reviews “Get It” selection; the supplied advance praise also describes the novel as a wel...

  • Critical praise

    Advance praise from Foreword Reviews

    Advance praise describes the novel as weird, funny, and often suspenseful, and highlights its themes of aging an...

AlbakiReads Editorial

A miracle stirs a Kansas town

In Lebanon, Kansas, an uncanny whirlpool appears on rancher Zeb Stout’s land as his wife’s health declines. Its promise of healing and youth draws neighbors to the ranch, while strange disruptions—including wandering calves and people who disappear—spread across town. The supernatural premise gives the novel room to examine what people long for when hope is fading, and what follows when an extraordinary possibility becomes part of ordinary community life. The publisher describes the book as surreal and darkly comic, framing its central miracle as both an opening for second chances and a source of unsettling consequences.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in surreal fiction with a small-town Kansas setting.
  • Readers drawn to stories about aging, illness, and the desire for renewal.
  • Readers who enjoy darkly comic premises involving supernatural events and community consequences.

Themes

Hope and longingAging and renewalMiracles and their consequencesCommunity and disappearance

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

There's something in the water in Lebanon, Kansas.

 

Zeb Stout is an eccentric rancher with a sick wife and a field of junkyard sculptures. As hope fades, a whirlpool appears in the pasture, offering a choice he never imagined.

 

Consequences ripple through Lebanon. Calves wander down Main Street. Rumors spread of impossible recoveries. Neighbors vanish. Soon the entire town is drawn to Stout Ranch, desperate to drink, to heal, to be young.

 

The Whirlpool of Lebanon is a surreal and darkly comic novel about love, longing, and the terrible beauty of second chances. This is what happens when a miracle arrives-and refuses to leave.

 

ADVANCE PRAISE

 

"A well-crafted comedy about the bad side of miracles."

- Kirkus Reviews ("Get It" selection)

 

"A weird, funny, and often suspenseful novel about aging and redemption."

- Foreword Reviews

 

"An exquisitely constructed novel with a large cast of believable, well-rounded characters you come to care about. Pass also captures the nuances of High Plains village life, which many have attempted but few have achieved."

- Bryan L. Jones, author of North of the Platte, South of the Niobrara

 

"Whirlpool is an intercession between the sublime and the sublunary, with characters as real as they are hilarious, as redeemable as they are tragic. Swift and stylish, this book is a bit like a glistening puddle you stomp on for joy then realize you're standing in the center of the sea."

- Joe Deany-Braun, curator of Perelandra Bookshop and author of Young Santa

 

"The story sucked me in with the same awe and mystery as the whirlpool spinning at its center. I loved every page."

- Becky Mandelbaum, author of Bad Kansas (Flannery O'Connor Award)

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