"You have lost everything, yes?" Everything? Henry thought; he considered the word. Had he lost everything? Fleeing New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Henry Garrett is haunted by the ruins of his marriage, a squandered inheritance, and the teaching job he inexplicably quit. He pulls into a small Virginia town after three days on the road, hoping to silence the ceaseless clamor in his head. But this quest for peace and quiet as the only guest at a roadside motel is destroyed when Henry finds himself at the center of a bizarre and violent tragedy. As a result, Henry winds up stranded at the ramshackle motel just outside the small town of Marimore, and it's there that he is pulled into the lives of those around him: Latangi, the motel's recently widowed proprietor, who seems to have a plan for Henry; Marge, a local secretary who marshals the collective energy of her women's church group; and the family of an old man, a prisoner, who dies in a desperate effort to provide for his infirm wife. For his previous novels John Gregory Brown has been lauded for his "compassionate vision of human destiny" as well as his "melodic, haunting, and rhythmic prose." With A Thousand Miles From Nowhere, he assumes his place in the tradition of such masterful storytellers as Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy, offering to readers a tragicomic tour de force about the power of art and compassion and one man's search for faith, love, and redemption. "John Gregory Brown is a writer I've long admired, and this new novel is his best book yet. A Thousand Miles from Nowhere is a marvelous depiction of one man's stumbling journey from despair toward a hard-won redemption."-Ron Rash

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Literature & Fiction

Brown, John Gregory

United States

Lee Boudreaux Books

A first novel about an Irish family in New Orleans.

Decorations In a Ruined Cemetary

Sceptre

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery

Moving back and forth in time from the 1930s to the 1960s to the present, this luminous first novel uncovers the heartbreaking legacy of the Eagen family of New Orleans, Irish Catholics of "mixed blood" in a city where race defines fate. A haunting novel of family loyalty and relations between the races.

Literary

Avon/Books

John Gregory Brown's luminous first novel takes on the enduring themes of great Southern fiction - family, race, and faith - in a heartbreaking tale of identity, devotion, and regret. At its rich emotional center is the Eagen family of New Orleans, Irish Catholics of "mixed blood" in a city where race defines destiny. The mesmerizing story begins with the collapse of a bridge and its consequences for Thomas Eagen, a troubled young doctor whose unforeseen journey still haunts his daughter, Meredith, years later. Still puzzling over her father's abrupt decision to leave his wife, the stepmother she had grown to love, Meredith ponders the questions that blinded Thomas to his children's needs. Why did his mother, a proud black woman, abandon his devout Catholic father, and why did Thomas's own marriage fail? The elusive answers to these questions lie for Meredith in the fateful return of the black handyman who holds in his memory the full story of the family's past. Through his clear-eyed account and her stepmother's tender letters, Meredith begins to unravel the misunderstandings that led them all, long ago, to tragedy. John Gregory Brown travels through this fertile Southern landscape with resonating grace, humor, and compassion, shedding light on the virtues and dangers of family loyalty and the power and limitations of faith. In praise of Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, Lee Smith described this novel as "shot through with love that transcends time and race." It introduces a writer of rare sensibility and accomplishment.

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

Shelton Lafleur, an elderly artist, recalls growing up as a young Black orphan in New Orleans during the Depression, the accident that cripples him for life, and his encounter with Minou, who takes him into his home and helps him unravel his haunted past

The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur

Houghton/Mifflin

On his deathbed, renowned ornithologist John James Audubon remains haunted by a thirty-year-old mystery about the sudden and enigmatic death of a beautiful woman, Myra Gautreaux, on the Louisiana plantation where Audubon is employed as a tutor, in an atmospheric novel based on a single entry from Audubon's diary. 15,000 first printing.

Audubon's Watch: A Novel

Contemporary

Old Murphy's unexpected return to the Eagen home in New Orleans sparks off reminiscences of the family's history from the 1930s to the 1960s, when a misunderstanding leads to tragedy. Reprint.

Mariner Books

On his deathbed, renowned ornithologist John James Audubon remains haunted by a thirty-year-old mystery about the sudden and enigmatic death of a beautiful woman, Myra Gautreaux, on the Louisiana plantation where Audubon is employed as a tutor, in an atmospheric novel based on a single entry from Audubon's diary. Reprint.

It is Depression-era New Orleans, and Shelton Lafleur, eight years old, tumbles from the top of a tree, crippling him for life. Deliverance arrives in the form of a man named Minou, who takes Shelton into his family and under his tutelage. "This is the stuff of which classics are made and what literature is all about".--Los Angeles Book Review.

The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series)

G.K.Hall & Co.

John Gregory Brown's debut novel examines family, race, and faith in a heartbreaking tale of identity, devotion, and regret. The story centers on the Eagen family of New Orleans, Irish Catholics of "mixed blood" in a city where race defines destiny. In 1965 Thomas Eagen and his twelve-years-old twins, Meredith and Lowell, abruptly drive off, leaving his second wife, Catherine, and their home. As they cross Lake Pontchartrain, a section of the bridge collapses, injuring Murphy Warrington, an African American man who once worked for Thomas's father. Murphy becomes the catalyst for a series of revelations about Thomas's light-skinned black mother and the reasons she abandoned her husband and son when Thomas was an infant.

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery: A Novel With an Introduction by the Author (Southern Revivals)

University of South Carolina Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, John Gregory. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brown, John Gregory

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, John Gregory. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Decorations In a Ruined Cemetary

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery

The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur

Audubon's Watch: A Novel

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery

Audubon's Watch: A Novel

The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series)

Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery: A Novel With an Introduction by the Author (Southern Revivals)