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John Wray United States of America    PWF 2010

At the epicenter of revolt — John Wray was born in 1971 in Washington, D.C. — dislocated from the undertows of his Austrian inheritance. A heretic in the gallant sense — Wray wades chillingly in the bloodstream of leading American authors — who perpetually try to defuse the endless perfusion of unappealing ideas.

“The teachings of Descartes are well and good for the old country — : but here they don’t churn the butter. This nation was founded on belief — credulity pure and simple — without a sympathy for it, a talent for it — you’ll never make your penny.”

Freethinking with ideas — some would describe John Wray a quick-change artist — for his constant forays into new obsessions for each successive fiction: The Right Hand of Sleep — set in the blood meridian of war-torn Austria, Canaan’s Tongue — pure Southern gothic sawn with merciless schemes — “a wild, wicked music” — amidst the slave trade of the American Civil War, and Lowboy — “a lip-biting thriller — a psychotic, subterranean, environmentally conscious love letter” — written while riding the New York subway.

“Lowboy ran to catch a train. People were in his way — but he was careful not to touch them. He ran up the platform’s corrugated yellow lip and kept his eyes on the train’s cab — commanding it to wait. The doors had closed already — but they opened when he kicked them. He couldn’t help but take that as a sign.”

Some of his more recent work includes, Cousin Corinne's Reminder: Issue Number One (2010), The Lost Time Accidents (2016), and Godsend: A Novel (2018).

John Way lives in Brooklyn, New York.