After an affair costs him his marriage and career, Marcus retreats to rural North Carolina to visit Edgar, an old high school friend haunted by troubles of his own. In Edgar’s beautiful, isolated home, their shared loneliness draws Marcus into a series of unsettling encounters, culminating in a deer hunt that forces him to confront the darkness he’s been avoiding. A Familiar Beast is a haunting story about guilt, friendship, and the search for redemption.
An Amazon Best Book of the Month and #1 Indie Best-Seller
Praise for A Familiar Beast
“Gianopoulos’ wisdom and humanity light up this darkly comic, bittersweet journey. Here is a gifted writer in full control of his craft—and impact. “A Familiar Beast” is a perfectly-executed shot through the heart.”
“Superb.... With elegant prose, unforgettable scenes and Philip Roth-like psychological insights, Panio Gianopoulos’s debut novella marks the arrival of a bright and gifted writer.”
“Elegant, erudite and witty, this extremely well-observed and surprisingly suspenseful story offers more insights into love and human relationships than most authors manage in works three times as long.”
““A Familiar Beast” is a swan song to love and lovers, and with its devastating wit and tender bitterness it kills the easy, common hope for meaning, significance, and, ultimately, redemption.”
““A Familiar Beast” is hypnotic and chillingly precise. It is never ostentatious; instead, it builds slowly, observation by observation, gradually creating an atmosphere of paranoia so subtle that we are ensnared without question.”
“[Gianopoulos’s] prose is economical, eloquently phrased, and rich in detail... astonishingly rewarding.”