The Grave He Digs

A novel by S.R. Clark · literary fiction · a spaghetti western set in post-independence Greece · ~68,000 words · currently on submission

The book

The Grave He Digs is structured around a klephtic oath that comes apart stair by stair — a catechism for killing that outlives the order it was sworn to. Set during the Greek state's consolidation of the Mani peninsula, the novel follows a former mountain fighter who has spent three winters raking salt to escape a choice he made in the dark. When a boy brings him news that his blood-brother — now a state captain — has entered the valley, the oath reassembles itself, piece by piece, until the only word left unsaid is the name that would complete it.

The company it keeps

In its sun-cured, paratactic line and its anatomy of a closed honor-system it lives in the country of Cormac McCarthy's westerns; in its withheld, incantatory minimalism it shares air with Jon Fosse; and in its fated architecture it reaches back to Greek tragedy, with Kazantzakis's Cretan novels its nearest kin in place and blood.

Editorial praise

Editorial responses and early reader reactions are being collected as the novel moves through submission — see Praise & Reviews.

Go deeper

Read the opening chapters · About the world · Buy / preorder status