When a local man returns to Enigma, Georgia as a successful traveling evangelist, the townspeople, who idolize him, begin to attribute him with healing powers he knows he doesn't have. The celebrated first novel of Harry Crews, in its Penguin Classics debut.

A Penguin Classic


In Crews's first novel published in 1968, a gifted, idolized singer returns to his poor hometown and a life and family he is so far removed from he now holds them in contempt. The Gospel Singer reveals the absurdity of blind religious faith and idol worship, and the hypocrisy that results with the offering of money or sex. Crews grapples with race, gender, religion, and place, and steps back to divulge the secrets of his characters-including a dead girl awaiting the Gospel Singer's melodious eulogy, his dysfunctional family, a murderer, the zealous town residents, and a traveling freak show. This darkly comic, bitingly satirical, grotesque and violent-yet strangely empathetic-first novel displays Crews's brilliant literary talent that garnered critical acclaim and a cult following.

Harry Crews (1935-2012), author of seventeen novels and a memoir, often wrote about characters from the Deep South-poor, disenfranchised, and considered society's outcasts and misfits-drawing the attention of readers of Southern Gothic and "grit lit". He was born during the Great Depression in Bacon County, Georgia. The recipient of numerous literary honors, Crews was named Georgia Author of the Year for fiction in 1969 for The Gospel Singer and was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Crews taught creative writing at the University of Florida for nearly thirty years, mentoring and inspiring a generation of writers and gaining the reputation of a literary outsider and outlaw with a singular voice in American fiction.

Kevin Wilson (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Fang; Perfect Little World; and, most recently, Nothing to See Here, which was named a 2019 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, and Entertainment Weekly.