Set in the slums of New Orleans, among crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of 16-year-old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers financial hardship and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con. Fascinated by Moses' lopsided view of religion, Hailey and her brother Cyrus begin spending time at an abandoned bank that Moses plans to convert into a drive-through church. Moses' twisted religious beliefs become increasingly more violent, and Hailey and Cyrus find themselves trapped in a world of danger and fear from which there may be no escape. If I had a dollar for every sentence in Dirty Little Angels that blew my mind, I'd buy a decent Chevy Nova outright. This raw and poetic first novel--about a teenager named Hailey Trosclair who is willing to do anything to save her troubled, dysfunctional family--marks the beginning of a great and glorious career. --Donald Ray Pollock, Knockemstiff
Listen up, folks: Chris Tusa has written a nasty little novel that somehow lifts close to grace its downtrodden and sometimes black-hearted inhabitants. They're fallen and broken, but like the New Orleans through which they stagger and flail, they are lovely ruins--and like New Orleans they are only one storm away from the End Times.. Josh Russell, Yellow Jack
Dirty Little Angels is a powerful novel - fast paced, riveting, and gritty. Chris Tusa renders revelations about urban teens with startling honesty and deep compassion. Tusa is a gifted author and an amazing new talent. Bev Marshall, Right as Rain and Walkingthrough Shadows
Dirty Little Angels is rich with characters who are beautifully flawed and within arm's reach of redemption. A raw and tender debut. --Ronlyn Domingue, The Mercy of Thin Air
Dirty Little Angels is literary, alive and muscular.. --John R. Reed, The Kingfisher's Call
