Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Readalikes
Mark Spragg is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, and the novels The Fruit of Stone, An Unfinished Life, and Bone Fire. All four were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into fifteen languages.
Mark Spragg's website
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You've said that the idea for this book began with the image of an
embittered old man sitting alone on his porch. Where did this scene come from?
For me, most stories start as a single scene that refuses to leave my
imagination. I've often wondered what prompts them, because they rarely–when
they first start up–appear to be connected to anything that's going on in my
life. In this case, the scene was a man approaching seventy, sitting tightly in
a chair on a porch, surrounded by a mob of half-feral cats. He kept reappearing
in my mind–occasionally in my dreams–and inevitably I started the process of
questioning myself about him. Why is he embittered? Does he own a chance for
personal redemption? Who else shares his suffering? It's the process of
questioning that ends up defining some sort of story.
Is the character of Einar Gilkyson, which this man became and who anchors
the novel, based on anyone?
Einar wasn't fashioned after any particular man I know, but his
dedication to his daily work, the land he husbands, his family–whether blood
or not–I'm sure has been influenced by the old men that participated in my
upbringing: the old cowboys that worked my ...
C. J. Box is the author of thirty books, including the Joe Pickett series and the Cassie Dewell series, and a story collection. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Fruit of Stone
Try:
Winterkill: A Joe Pickett Novel
by C.J. Box
Charles Frazier was born in 1950 in Asheville, North Carolina and grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973, received an M.A. from Appalachian State ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
An Unfinished Life
Try:
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
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