“There is perverse (and delightful) genius afoot here, more so than in any of his work since the 1978 Airships. Hannah invades the lives of a vast array of Americans, taking few prisoners. . . . Hannah’s sentences are so frequently touched by grace, his ability to grip so akin to witchcraft, and his humor so fierce, you read on. Tom Waits couldn’t sing it any better.” –Randall Kenan, Boston Sunday Globe

“Bats Out of Hell leaves little doubt that Hannah remains one of the most fascinating and important writers working in this country today.” –The Times-Picayune

“In Bats Out of Hell Hannah has created astonishing characters out of insight and irony. But even those who smell of magnolia-scented decay strut and rant in a world that is recognizable as the last, mad years of the millennium.” –William Rodarmor, San Francisco Chronicle

“The best of these twenty-three stories are as good as they come. Risky, inventive, comic, with gothic overtones, they have the Faulknerian weight of some of Mr. Hannah’s novels.” –Shelby Hearon, The New York Times Book Review

Barry Hannah (1942-2010) was the author of twelve books: Geronimo Rex, Airships, Ray, The Tennis Handsome, Nightwatchmen, Captain Maximus, Hey Jack, Boomerang, Never Die, Bats Out of Hell, High Lonesome, and Yonder Stands Your Orphan. His work was published in The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Southern Review, The Oxford American, Gulf Coast Review, and many other magazines.