Elwood Reid first appeared on the literary stage with a powerful and bruising story called "What Salmon Know," which appeared in the March 1997 issue of "GQ."Here was a writer not afraid to examine the soulful underside of the American male, or the violence that accompanies disappointed dreams.Now, in his first, extraordinary novel, Reid tells the story of Elwood Riley, a six-foot-six, 275-pound blue-collar kid whose ticket out of Cleveland is a "full ride" football scholarship to the University of Michigan.
But Riley is cursed with intelligence and an awareness of the vicious inhumanity...

Compared by critics to such masterful storytellers as Raymond Carver, Rick Bass, and Thom Jones, Elwood Reid, author of the acclaimed novel If I Don't Six, signals a powerful presence on the American literary landscape with his knockout story collection, What Salmon Know.
Reid's characters are tough men living in a world tougher than they are. Life's disappointments fester in their hearts, dashing earnest hopes and provoking violent tendencies made manifest in bad behavior and fatalistic posturing. But there's more to these men than meets the eye, and with great emotional acuity, Reid...