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Lay Your Armor Down

A Novel

Coming Soon
Lay Your Armor Down Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Michael Farris Smith

Formats and Prices

Price

$24.99

Format

Format:

  1. Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
  2. ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
  3. Hardcover $29.00 $38.00 CAD

Also available from:

A dark Southern tale of desperate souls who’ve wound up on the road of poor choices, a messianic child with untold powers, and those out hunting her for their own reward, all drawn together by Michael Farris Smith’s trademark mournful, spirit-gnawing prose.

An old woman, riddled with dementia, walks off into the woods in the middle of the night. A light in the wood draws her to a campfire with two strange, dangerous men, one young and one old, who are there plotting a crime of as-yet-indeterminate purpose. The two men have a job to do. They are hunting something precious but have only been told: you’ll know it when you see it. When they arrive at the place, an abandoned church cellar in the burned-out countryside, they find an answer they never could have predicted. Now, the job feels dubious, one that’ll surely bring them to ruin. Yet if they’re to go against orders, no step can be undone, and nothing can be taken back.

In spare, Beckett-like prose, Lay Your Armor Down reduces the epic to its most elemental. It charts the course of several broken people, all outrunning danger’s dark fingers, and all brought together for one last chance at redemption.

Genre:

  • "It’s not a surprise that Michael Farris Smith is also the front man for a rock-n-roll bar band. His sentences stalk the stage, flamboyant and visceral and howling, the choral heights of call and response. He possesses a conductor’s mastery and a lead singer’s swagger, and Lay Your Armor Down demands that you pay attention."
     
    Wright Thompson, NYT bestselling author of THE BARN and PAPPYLAND
  • "Lay Your Armor Down is a prophetic, propulsive tale that is sure to leave its lasting mark on the Southern gothic cannon. Smith is at his best in these pages, his signature prose rendering   a work as dark and beautiful as a summer storm. This novel is a masterclass in storytelling, with characters that are uniquely unforgettable, and an ending that’s well worth the journey."
    Scott Blackburn, author of IT DIES WITH YOU
  • "Michael Farris Smith’s Lay Your Armor Down is a work of divination. The magic sticks with you long after you’ve read the last page. It’s his best one yet."
    Mark Westmoreland, author of A VIOLENT GOSPEL

On Sale
May 27, 2025
Publisher
Hachette Audio
ISBN-13
9781668646755

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Michael Ferris Smith

Michael Farris Smith

About the Author

Michael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, Book Riot, and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. As a screenwriter, he scripted the feature-film adaptations of his novels Desperation Road and The Fighter, titled for the screen as Rumble Through the Dark. With his band MFS & The Smokes, Smith wrote and released the record Lostville, which was produced by Grammy nominee Jimbo Mathus. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.
 

Learn more about this author