Josh Ritter is a first-time novelist with a well-known name.

Ritter is the singer-songwriter, originally from Moscow, Idaho, who has a great national following for his well-crafted, literate songs.

So now Ritter the wordsmith has turned his hand to a new craft with his debut novel, “Bright’s Passage” (Dial Press, $22). It’s the story of a young man returning home after World War I. The story includes an angels and a talking horse. Actually, horse and angel are one and the same.

The novel was just released on Tuesday and is already getting praise from some well-known literary names. Dennis Lehane calls it “heartbreaking and luminous.”

Critic Carolyn Kellogg of the L.A. Times calls it “intensensly beautiful, tragic and also funny.”

She writes that Ritter said the idea first started out as a song, but it “wanted to be more.”

“He knows how to build a rich, beautiful story with shape,” writes Kellogg.

Here's a link to the LA Times review.

And here's a link to a short interview he did for the Washington Post. Looks like our region might have a new homegrown literary star.

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