Lay Your Armour Down

This gritty Southern novel follows desperate characters whose poor choices have led them down a dark path, where an old woman with dementia wanders into the woods and encounters two dangerous men plotting an unspecified crime. Their fates intertwine with a messianic child possessing untold powers, pursued by hunters seeking their own reward in this atmospheric tale of lost souls. Michael Farris Smith's signature mournful prose creates a world where redemption seems just out of reach for characters trapped by their circumstances.

The novel's strength lies in its haunting atmosphere and spirit-gnawing tension that builds through sparse, powerful descriptions of the rural landscape and its broken inhabitants. Readers who appreciate literary Southern Gothic with elements of magical realism will find themselves drawn into this morally complex world where violence and grace exist side by side. Smith delivers a raw, unflinching exploration of what happens when damaged people finally shed their defenses and confront their deepest truths.