Mark Spragg creëert verhalen die zich verdiepen in de diepgaande thema's van het menselijk bestaan en onze plaats binnen de ruige landschappen van het Amerikaanse Westen. Zijn schrijfstijl wordt geprezen om zijn inzichtelijke verkenning van de menselijke psyche en een onderscheidende stijl die de essentie van het leven vastlegt. Door zijn werk nodigt hij lezers uit om veerkracht, verlies en de zoektocht naar betekenis te overdenken.
Set in Wyoming, in cattle country, The Fruit of Stone is the story of two men and one woman. McEban, a rancher, has loved Gretchen Reilly all his life; and all his life Bennett, Gretchen's husband, has been his best friend. When Gretchen leaves Bennett, the two men follow her trail on a strange, fateful journey across Wyoming to Nebraska.
Mark Spragg grew up on the oldest dude ranch in Wyoming - a remote spread in the Shoshone National Forest. It is a sublime but unforgiving landscape, a place of unrelenting winds, pitiless blizzards, fierce rivers, and the men who work there have to be tough to survive. Spragg writes lyrically of this world, its animals - horses, bears, elk - and of its people, in particular his parents and John, an old cowboy who becomes the boy's mentor. This is a book about joy - Spragg's writing is miraculous; tough but beautiful, passionate and funny.
Jean Gilkyson is living in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realises this kind of life has to stop, especially for her nine-year-old daughter, Griff. Einar Gilkyson blames Jean for the accident that took his son's life, and has chosen to go on living simply because without him his oldest friend, Mitch, wouldn't survive.
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.
Der Farmer Barnum hat sein Leben lang die rothaarige Greta geliebt, die mit seinem besten Freund verheiratet ist. Nach einer einzigen Liebesnacht verschwindet Greta spurlos, und die beiden Männer machen sich auf die Suche nach ihr durch Wyoming.
Sein ganzes Leben lang hat Barnum McEban, Besitzer einer einsamen Ranch in Wyoming, die rothaarige Greta Reilly geliebt. Und sein ganzes Leben lang war Bennett, Gretas Ehemann, sein bester Freund. Als Greta plötzlich verschwindet, folgen ihr die beiden Männer nach Westen. Ihre Reise durch die atemberaubende Wildnis des Yellowstone Parks wird immer mehr zur Reise in die Vergangenheit, als eine Jugend inmitten unberechenbarer Natur, halbwilder Pferde und riesiger Rinderherden McEban und Bennett zu unzertrennlichen Gefährten machte. Doch dann taucht Greta wieder auf. Und da beginnt ihr abenteuerlicher Weg sie an die Grenzen der Freundschaft und schließlich an die Grenzen des Lebens zu führen.