The Days Are Gods

"Liz Stephens's exquisite memoir, The Days Are Gods, tells a fascinating story of the search-for-self in unfamiliar territory. This literary debut is a pure pleasure to read." - Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer "Acutely self-aware, in indelible prose, Liz Stephens finds a future in America's past: not re-enactment, but re-creation, through the hard work of life-and-death responsibility. And in ultimately realizing she cannot be of any one place, Stephens gives an evocative voice to the values and vision that shaped the country." - Judith Kitchen, author of Half in Shade "Liz Stephens writes in the tradition of westering women, from Isabella Bird to Pam Houston, about a place, its people, and the animals, wild and domestic, that lead their parallel lives in a quiet northern Utah valley. The Days Are Gods is shimmering, compelling, and accurate to the bone." - Mary Clearman Blew, author of Jackalope Dreams "This first book shows Liz Stephens to be an important writer who doesn't romanticize the West so much as reveal its pockets of sorrow, its raw and blemished beauty, and the dignity of its denizens. The Days Are Gods is alluring, clear-sighted, and immensely readable." - Lisa Knopp, What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte "The Days Are Gods is a reckoning: with the land, with history, and above all with oneself. Stephens gives us a memoir about living as fully and generously as we can while our time under the big sky lasts." - Eric LeMay, author of Immortal Milk "A stimulating search for self and place set against the vast backdrop of the American West." Kirkus Review, January 2013