Ethan Mueller, the narrator of Brother Carnival, has suffered a crisis of faith and is on the brink of taking his own life when he is informed by his father that he has an estranged brother who is an author. Whereupon he is handed a collection of his sibling's stories and novel excerpts and urged to seek him out. "These stories are his effort to find you, Ethan. He's been where you are now. Seek him out but it won't be easy." In effect, "Christopher Daugherty's" writings function as the protagonist's brother in absentia, thus creating the "dialogue" and suspenseful interplay between them. By immersing himself in the pieces, Ethan Mueller's pursuit of his brother is a quest to discover himself.

Dennis Must is the author of two novels: The World's Smallest Bible (Red Hen Press, March 2014) and Hush Now, Don't Explain (Coffeetown Press, October 2014); plus three short story collections: Going Dark (Coffeetown Press 2016), Oh, Don't Ask Why (Red Hen Press 2007) and Banjo Grease (Creative Arts Book Company, 2000). He won the 2014 Dactyl Foundation Literary Fiction Award for Hush Now, Don't Explain, and The World's Smallest Bible was a 2014 USA Best Book Award Finalist in the Literary Fiction category. His plays have been produced off-off-Broadway and he has been published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He resides with his wife in Salem, Massachusetts.