Where Rivers Change Direction

Biographies & Memoirs

SPRAGG, Mark

Regional U.S.

JONATHAN CAPE.

The Fruit of Stone

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

An Unfinished Life

Alfred.A. Knopf

Ishawooa, Wyoming, is far from bucolic nowadays. The sheriff, Crane Carlson, needs no reminder of this but gets one anyway when he finds a kid not yet twenty murdered in a meth lab. His other troubles include a wife who’s going off the rails with bourbon and pot, and his own symptoms of the disease that killed his grandfather. Einar Gilkyson, taking stock at eighty, counts among his dead a lifelong friend, a wife and—far too young—their only child; and his long-absent sister has lately returned home from Chicago after watching her soul mate die. His granddaughter, Griff, has dropped out of college to look after him, though Einar would rather she continue with her studies and her boyfriend, Paul. Completing this extended family are Barnum McEban and his ward, Kenneth, a ten-year-old whose mother—Paul’s sister—is off marketing spiritual enlightenment. What these characters have to contend with on a daily basis is bracing enough, involving car accidents, runaway children, strokes and Lou Gehrig’s disease, not to mention the motorcycle rallies and rodeos that flood the tiny local jail. But as their lives become even more strained, hardship foments exceptional compassion and generosity, and those caught in their own sorrow alleviate the same in others, changing themselves as they do so. In this gripping story, along with harsh truths and difficult consolation come moments of hilarity and surprise and beauty. No one writes more compellingly about the modern West than Mark Spragg, and in Bone Fire he is at the very height of his powers.

Bone Fire: A novel

United States

KNOPF

"Seeking to escape her brutal boyfriend and hoping to introduce her daughter, Griff, to the grandfather she has never met, widow Jean Gilkyson seeks refuge in her late husband's Wyoming hometown with her estranged father-in-law, who blames her for his son's death. "

Vidas Inacabadas (Spanish Edition)

World Literature

Grijalbo

At eighty, Einar Gilkyson has lost his share of loved ones, but still finds his house full. His granddaughter, Griff, has dropped out of college to look after him, and his long-absent sister has returned home from Chicago. But Ishawooa, Wyoming is far from bucolic, and troubles begin to boil when the sheriff finds a man murdered in a meth lab. In this gripping story from the author of An Unfinished Life, harsh truths and difficult consolation come alongside moments of hilarity, surprise and beauty.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Mark Spragg’s first novel is the story of the lifelong friendship between two Wyoming ranchers, McEban and Bennett, and their love for the same woman—Gretchen Simpson, Bennett’s wife. When she leaves them both for a new life, the two men follow her on a journey across the American West, testing the limits of their friendship and love.

The Fruit of Stone (Vintage Contemporaries)

“One of the truest and most original new voices in American letters,” as Kent Haruf has written, Mark Spragg now tells the story of a complex, prodigal homecoming. Jean Gilkyson is floundering in a trailer house in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realizes this kind of life has got to stop, especially for the sake of her daughter, Griff. But the only place they can run to is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean’s loved ones are dead and her father-in-law, the only person who could take them in, wishes that she was too. For a decade, Einar Gilkyson has blamed her for the accident that took his son’s life, and he has chosen to go on living himself largely because his oldest friend couldn’t otherwise survive. They’ve been bound together like brothers since the Korean War and now face old age on a faltering ranch, their intimacy even more acute after Mitch was horribly crippled while Einar helplessly watched. Of course, ten-year-old Griff knows none of this–only that her father is dead and her mother has bad taste in men. But once she encounters this grandfather she’d never heard about, and the black cowboy confined to the bunkhouse, with irrepressible courage and great spunk she attempts to turn grievous loss, wrath, and recrimination–to which she’s naturally the most vulnerable–toward reconciliation and love. Immediately compelling and constantly surprising, rich in character, landscape, and compassion, An Unfinished Life shows a novelist of extraordinary talents in the fullness of his powers.

Random House, Large Print

While Wyoming sheriff Crane Carlson struggles with a meth-influenced murder, his wife's addictions and his own manifestation of a genetic disease, octogenarian Einar Gilkyson takes stock of his life and reluctantly accepts help from his college dropout granddaughter. (General fiction). Simultaneous.

Bone Fire (Random House Large Print)

Literary

Think of the story of the prodigal son. Now make the wanderer a woman - and the home a ranch in Wyoming. It's a clever story of redemption and forgiveness. Definitely worth a read.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf

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

Books by SPRAGG, Mark

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

Where Rivers Change Direction

The Fruit of Stone

An Unfinished Life

Bone Fire: A novel

Vidas Inacabadas (Spanish Edition)

Bone Fire: A novel

The Fruit of Stone (Vintage Contemporaries)

An Unfinished Life

Bone Fire (Random House Large Print)

An Unfinished Life