"Sometimes a good writer will happen upon a story that literally lifts the work to another plane . . . this is what happened to David Payne with his astonishing new novel, Back to Wando Passo." - Lee Smith

"Wonderful. This fast-paced, touching story is told with such vivid imagery that you will feel the sting of sea spray on your face." --The Newport News

"I begin with what may seem a bold observation: David Payne is the most gifted American novelist of his generation. "Ruin Creek" is the best new novel I've read this year. As in "Early from the Dance," he sets his literary table on the Carolina Outer Banks, a literary territory as palpable in these pages as. the Salinas Valley in John Steinbeck's." --The Dallas Morning News

"Brilliant. a defining voice for his generation." - The Boston Globe

"Exuberant. the makings of a young Charles Dickens-a consummate storyteller in love with language and all the variations of life, people, and improbable situations." - Business Week