Small Animals Caught in Traps

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Pub Date 04 Apr 2023 | Archive Date 18 Apr 2023

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Description

For readers of Smith Henderson’s Fourth of July Creek and David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide, C. B. Bernard’s debut novel shows a father and a daughter fighting toward hope through a traumatic past.


In the town of Disappointment, Oregon, washed-up boxer Lewis Yaw makes ends meet as a fishing guide. He’s lived a life of violence, but doesn’t understand real strength until he meets Janey, who can see good in even the most damaged things—including him. When she gives birth to their daughter, Grayling, Lewis worries that he’ll mess her up as badly as his father did him. But he also sees a chance to right the wrongs of the past.


By high school, Gray has become his apprentice guide, his sparring partner, and his pride and joy. Life in their small town is nothing short of challenging—there’s a marauding bear roaming the streets, a rival guide trying to kill Lewis, and a poacher littering deer carcasses along the river—but he is closer to happiness than he ever thought possible. When tragedy strikes, Lewis can’t break free of his past, leaving Gray to fight to save the only thing she has left: her family.

For readers of Smith Henderson’s Fourth of July Creek and David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide, C. B. Bernard’s debut novel shows a father and a daughter fighting toward hope through a traumatic past.


In...


A Note From the Publisher

C. B. Bernard is the author of Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, a Publishers Weekly and National Geographic top pick and finalist for the Oregon Book Award in nonfiction. His fiction and essays have appeared in Catapult, Gray’s Sporting Journal, and elsewhere. Though he called Alaska and Oregon home for much of his life, he now lives on the coast of Rhode Island’s South County with his wife, Kim, a retriever named Nessie, and the ghosts of a couple dogs.

C. B. Bernard is the author of Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, a Publishers Weekly and National Geographic top pick and finalist for the Oregon Book Award in nonfiction...


Advance Praise

“An absolutely gorgeous book about the beauty and terror of bonds, both with the natural world and with our families. As a tortured dad tries to outrun his past and keep it from being a legacy for his adored daughter, she struggles to find her own path, even as tragedy looms. Yes, it’s a story about loss, but at its rare beating heart, it’s about what really matters: love. And I loved this book.”

-Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You


“An absolutely gorgeous book about the beauty and terror of bonds, both with the natural world and with our families. As a tortured dad tries to outrun his past and keep it from being a legacy for...


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• National and regional reviews

• Digital advertising

• Book club promotions

• Bookseller and library trade show marketing

• Social media campaign 


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9798200798865
PRICE $27.99 (USD)
PAGES 400

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Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

Cape Disappointment, Oregon is a beautiful and dangerous place. It’s a favorite for tourists looking to experience the wilds of Oregon’s Pacific Coast. It’s an “end of the world” place for hardcore drifters, seekers, survivalists, and lifers who put their lives on the line every day.

C.B. Bernard’s striking debut novel “Small Animals Caught in Traps” centers on the grandeur and peril of Disappointment, seen primarily through the eyes of the Yaw family - Lewis, Janey, and Grayling. Mom and Dad are Massachusetts transplants ending up in Cape Disappointment at the end of their quest to create as much distance as possible from their roots.

Bernard teaches us a great deal. We learn about Oregon, fishing, bears, guns, boats, boxing, arrogant Californians, trivia, and literature. Often we learn through clever, witty, dry dialogue that is laugh out loud funny.

But what “Small Animals Caught in Traps” is really about is struggling to overcome trauma, despair, abandonment, and pain. Is recovery possible? Can we control ourselves sufficiently to learn and improve? Bernard pulls no punches (pun intended) in the stories he tells. Some are graphic in detail. Each time the reader settles in confident that the corner has been turned, Bernard tells us, “Not so fast”. However at the end of the day, “Small Animals Caught in Traps” is a hopeful tale and a wondrous read.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.

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Lewis Yaw grew up in far back east and his did not start out well when he lost a mother at a very young age and had to grow up with a who regrets him every day. Lewis's father abuses often even more so when Lewis witnesses his father at his weakest moments. His father believes that physically fighting your own child as acceptable as it is just another form of communication. Thanks to a teacher that sees a chance in Lewis he is referred to a therapist which turns out to be a boxing gym. Lewis finds that this can be place of escape and ends up being a somewhat successful boxer. He finds within this environment he realizes he can be something more. Eventually Lewis finds his way out and ends up in Disappointment, Oregon where he has exchanged the life of a fighter for the life as a fishing guide where he and his wife Janey who is the sun in his world try to make a better life. When they have their child and see's that it is not the son he hoped for. He heads the advice of a nurse in the delivery room when he mentions how he wanted a son and now what is he going to do, and she tells him teach his daughter and she will do these things better than any man. While Lewis raises his daughter he is haunted by his past as he does not want to repeat the past and be like his father, does not want to be that guy. This is the type of read that compels you to finish it in one day and it has been a while since I have had a book do that but be warned there are some dark spots in this story and in my opinion gut-wrenching at times. I do not know if my review does this book justice but i will definitely recommend this book to everyone i know. Give it a read.

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