Longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Named one of Literary Hub's 100 Notable Small Press Books 2025
"Johnson's inventive, assured writing delivers what one hopes for in a first book, pages that breathe with life, and the introduction to a writer who has absorbed the echoes of iconic storytellers, but whose already identifiable voice is his own."
-New York Times Book Review
"The stories in Bob Johnson's collection The Continental Divide pulse with tension, their characters grounded in their convictions and using language ripe with country pulp."
-Foreword Reviews
"Fast-paced and unpredictable, infused with mayhem and true evil, the situations in Johnson's stories go from bad to worse."
-Hudson Review
"The tight, engaging plots unfold with dramatic flair and a dash of absurdist humor in a blend of Donald Ray Pollock's raw and unflinching prose and Daniel Woodrell's country-noir grit. What more to say? The Continental Divide is a stunner."
-Barcelona Review
"These hard-wrought stories chart a course through a richly textured world. . . . Johnson's clear-eyed sensibility and honest prose show us where the trouble starts and why it's so hard to find a happy ending that doesn't include violence."
-Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of The Waters and American Salvage, National Book Award Finalist
"Forget anything you thought you knew about the Midwest-these stories will set you straight."
-Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love, National Book Award Finalist
"A riveting, powerful literary debut. Bob Johnson is my new favorite writer. From the first story to the last, he has his foot on the gas and never lets up. "
-Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff, PEN/Bingham Prize Winner
"What Eudora Welty does for Mississippi, The Continental Divide does for Indiana. . . . These stories ripple with life."
-Matthew Neill Null, author of Allegheny Front
"With quiet lyricism and great precision, Bob Johnson reveals to us the brutal beauties of the human heart. Riveting, chilling, the stories in this masterful collection will startle, unsettle, and amaze you."
-E.J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor
"In The Continental Divide, Bob Johnson brings storytelling back to its roots . . . heartbreaking humanity in a broken but beautiful world."
-Susanna Daniel, author of Stiltsville, PEN/Bingham Prize Winner
"The dramatic tension on the page is so visceral and intense it makes your hands tremble."
-Robert Cohen, author of The Varieties of Romantic Experience
"This is the Midwest no one talks about. This is the Midwest I know well. There's not a collection out there like this."
-Erika Wurth, author of White Horse
