“An absolutely gorgeous book… At its rare beating heart, it’s about what really matters: love. And I loved this book.”
——Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You

You can’t save someone who
doesn’t know he’s drowning.

Small Animals Caught in Traps tells the story of Lewis Yaw, a troubled flyfishing guide trying to help his daughter Grayling find her way in the world even as he’s losing his own. It’s also the story of a daughter trying to save her father from drowning. The danger of trying to save someone from drowning is that you can get pulled down too, and sometimes your only choice is to let go.

“The wildest things aren’t in the forests or jungles, or even in the shadows,” Lewis tells Gray. “They’re inside us, and we spend our lives building cages—work, marriage, friendships, families—to contain them.”

Theirs is a story soaked with the cold rain that falls endlessly on Disappointment, Oregon, the runt of a town where it takes place. But rays of humor and beauty shine through, and ultimately this is a book about hope.

“This is a novel of consequence.”—Barbara Lloyd McMichael, Our Coast Magazine

Buy it now from your favorite local independent bookseller, or online from the publisher, Indiebound, or Amazon, or anywhere fine books are sold.

“Small Animals Caught in Traps snapped me in two. It’s a gorgeous chunk of sorrow.”
—Kristin Bair, author of Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything

“An absolutely gorgeous book about the beauty and terror of bonds, both with the natural world and with our families. As a tortured dad tries to outrun his past and keep it from being a legacy for his adored daughter, she struggles to find her own path, even as tragedy looms. Yes, it’s a story about loss, but at its rare beating heart, it’s about what really matters: love. And I loved this book.”

—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You

“Draws you in and holds you tight through an emotional and educational journey across the wilderness of the wild soul.”

 —Tim Tigner, bestselling author of The Price of Time

“With precision-tuned character strokes, pitch-perfect dialogue and devastating plot developments, Bernard transforms these scruffy individuals into the flawed heroes of their own lives. This is a novel of consequence.”
—Barbara Lloyd McMichael, Our Coast Magazine

“Bernard paints a haunting picture of an American West where wildness is the last commodity. He writes with authority about the characters who live on this boundary, the two-legged, the four-legged, and the finned. And in arresting prose he reveals why nothing is as dangerous as a cornered animal. Small Animals Caught in Traps is a heartbreaker... I won’t forget it."

—Justin Tussing, author of The Best People in The World and Vexation Lullaby

“As powerful as a sudden summer storm, Small Animals Caught in Traps sweeps you up with rich, heartbreaking details. Bernard has crafted a world that blurs the line between civilization and wilderness, with a protagonist struggling to find his way between them while mastering his own grim past. With a gritty roster of characters and an unforgettable sense of place, this is a book to savor.”

 —Liz Michalski, author of Evenfall and Darling Girl

“Reminiscent of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion, this novel gives you love and heartache, disappointment and joy in equal measure. Bernard creates a small-town world that sucks you right in. This novel is full of grit and fishermen, broken towns and real animals, a wonderful read to go along with coffee or whiskey, or whiskey in coffee.”

 —Pedro Hoffmeister, author of American Afterlife,
Too Shattered for Mending, and This is the Part Where You Laugh