"Funny, bewitching, observant."--"The Oregonian"

"Hits all the frets of a powerful story: sharp-witted dialogue, vivid characters, insight into medical challenges and prose that snaps like well-placed plucks of guitar strings. . . . I hold up my lighter and turn it full-flame for Garth] Stein's latest work. Encore "--"The Seattle Times"

"Compelling."--"Seattle Post-Intelligencer"

"Stein handles the many narrative elements deftly."--"Seattle Weekly"

"An engrossing family drama."--"Publishers Weekly"

Evan had a hit single, but that was ten years ago. Thirty-one now, he's drifting, playing in a local band and teaching middle-aged men to coax music from an electric guitar.

Beset at a young age with a life-threatening form of epilepsy, he's kept his condition a secret. But his deepest secret is that he got his high school sweetheart pregnant. Then her conservative parents whisked her out of Seattle and out of Evan's life.

Now, fourteen years later, he experiences unplanned parenthood when he undertakes to raise the resentful teenage son he's never known.

Off beat and disarming, "How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets" portrays a contemporary American family with unfailing honesty.

Garth Stein, a former documentary filmmaker, was co-producer of an Academy Award-winning short film. "How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets" is his second novel; his first, "Raven Stole the Moon," was published by Pocket Books. His third novel, "The Art of Racing in the Rain," will be published by HarperCollins in 2008 and is being translated around the world. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children.

• January 2010 Indie Next List
• December 2009 Indie Next List
• November 2009 Indie Next List