Dan Berne's "The Gods of Second Chances" Launch

Portland Author Debuts at Powell’s 

The Gods of Second Chances, Portland author Dan Berne’s debut novel, will launch with a reading at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside Ave., Portland.

The Gods of Second Chances features Ray Bancroft, a widowed Alaskan fisherman raising his granddaughter with help from a multitude of gods and goddesses—not to mention rituals ad-libbed at sea by his half-Tlingit best friend. But statues and otter bone ceremonies aren’t enough when Ray’s estranged daughter returns from prison, her search for a safe harbor threatening everything he holds sacred.

“Every so often a novel comes along that feels like nothing you’ve read before,” said Karen Karbo, author of Julia Child Rules. “Dan Berne’s The Gods of Second Chances is one of those, soulful and shattering in equal measure. Berne shines a light on rarely visited corners of both the world and the human heart in a page-turning story that stays with you long after you’ve reached the end.”

Berne, whose fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines, owns a market strategy consultancy and lives with his wife Aliza in Portland. Learn more at danberne.com. 

The Gods of Second Chances is illustrated by Portland artist Reid Psaltis, who draws inspiration from the natural world. Psaltis’s comics and illustrations have been featured on Top Shelf 2.0, Study Group Comics, Trip City, Scout Books Good Ink Series, and by other independent publishers. More of his work can be seen at reidpsaltis.com. 

Forest Avenue Press chose Berne’s manuscript as the first novel in its fiction catalog, following the release of the linked story collection A Simplified Map of the Real World by Stevan Allred, which was named a #1 book of the year in the Powell’s Staff Top 5s. The Night, and the Rain, and the River, an Oregon short story anthology edited by Liz Prato of Portland, and Skin Drag, a debut novel by Portland poet Kate Gray, are forthcoming in May and September 2014. 

For more information, see forestavenuepress.com.