The Invisible Hand

In this mesmerizing book, Mr. Cole combines the lyrical and poetic ease of the writer with the gripping rhythm of musical fours. Told in four sections, each part twirls and dances with characters circling back on themselves, repeating the refrain of the ever-present, ever-changing invisible hand, a metaphor connecting each striking vignette. As with his novel, The White Field, in The Invisible Hand, Cole continues his keen ability to drop you into a story from the first sentence and not let you go. —Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte, author of Betrayal on the Bayou, Back to the Bayou: The Tassin Valley Saga Continues and other works

Douglas Cole writes with real American grit. His novel The Invisible Hand shares a sequence of seemingly disparate stories that come together in subtleties and hard moments of brutal clarity that toy with your emotions … all of them. This novel has at times a noirish feel, and at others a reaching, yearning humanism. You will feel for the characters, worry about them, flinch at their vulnerability, but never want to look away. Cole has woven a web that’s full of spiders, and you, the fly, will never feel so happy to be devoured.” —Ace Boggess, author of The Prisoners and A Song Without a Melody, and editor at Evening Street Press Review

Things “happen and there is no other way that they could have happened, ever. If that's fate…, I guess I believe in fate,” confesses Jack, one of the characters haunted by difficult circumstances in Douglas Cole’s, The Invisible Hand. As darkly glittering as a country night sky or the alleyway puddles that reflect a big city’s glistening high-rises, The Invisible Hand explores the lives of those struggling on the fringes. Prepare to be gripped by Cole’s weaving, lyrical language and the absolutely strange: “Sometimes, the noise comes from his skin or from under the skin.” While each of his characters struggles with loss, aimlessness and a sense being invisible, Cole remains in control, the invisible hand guiding us through these characters’ worlds, no matter how shadowy and warped they appear. —Cassandra Lane, editor in chief of L.A. Parent Magazine and author of We Are Bridges, a lyrical memoir reconstructing the lost history of a Black American family and one of the Best Books of 2021 picked by NPR.

Douglas Cole has published eight poetry collections, including The Cabin at the End of the World, winner of the Best Book Award in Urban Poetry and the International Impact Book Award. His novel, The White Field, won the American Fiction Award, and his screenplay of The White Field won Best Unproduced Screenplay award in the Elegant Film Festival. His work has appeared in journals such as Beloit Poetry, Fiction International, Valpariaso, The Gallway Review and Two Hawks Quarterly. He also contributes a column called "Trading Fours" to the magazine, Jerry Jazz Musician. He received the Leslie Hunt Memorial prize in poetry, the Best of Poetry Award from Clapboard House, First Prize in the "Picture Worth 500 Words" from Tattoo Highway, and the Editors' Choice Award in fiction by RiverSedge. He has been nominated Eight times for a Pushcart and Nine times for Best of the Net. His website is https://douglastcole.com.