Craig Nova

Craig Nova is the author of nine novels. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. His latest novel, Cruisers is available in paperback this summer.

Cruisers

From critically acclaimed novelist Craig Nova comes the brilliantly-crafted story of two men, one on the fringes of society and the other safely ensconced in the role of lawman, whose deadly encounter will take the life of one and change forever the life of the other. Jake cruises the thin grey ribbons of the interstate highways in the middle of the night, waiting for speeders to chase down. Alone in his car, the threat of the lawless ever present in his thoughts, he distracts himself by thinking of Sophie, his girlfriend of several months. Alfred is a man who has never had a chance. From the time he was nine his mother would entertain men in their small bungalow–one of whom eventually robbed him of his mother herself. He has been looking ever since for something to make him whole. Now, after an unspeakable crime, Alfred hits the highway with nothing to lose. Jake is waiting, not knowing what is coming but, as always, wondering.

Wetware

Craig Nova is widely regarded as a master of the modern novel, and in Wetware he presents a frightening vision of a future where genetically altered lab-grown humans perform our menial and dangerous work.

As a programmer for Galapagos Wetware, Hal Briggs is responsible for writing the genetic code for these creatures. But Briggs finds himself endowing the new models with more than the specifications dictate. When two of his pet projects, Jack and Kay, escape, Briggs reexamines their code and makes a terrifying discovery — one that will long resonate in readers’ minds. Wetware cements Craig Nova’s reputation as one of our most consistently daring novelists.

Brook Trout and the Writing Life

Brook Trout and the Writing Life is an autobiography in which the essential way of giving thanks and of appreciating life is through fishing. From the first brook trout the author catches to the most recent, this book is a paean to the beauty of the fish and an emblem of the good things in life.

The brookie is a constant, something that mitigates against the passage of time, defending against events we would like to forget. But, as Nova fishes for them in Maine, New York, and Vermont, they become a graceful embodiment of the important moments in his life — falling in love, having children, making friends, writing novels. The worlds commingle. His life intertwines with his love of clear brooks and the jewellike brook trout. And while the book explores the best of the author’s fishing experiences in all their delicious detail, as well as his giving thanks, it also looks into the darker moments — as when Nova found himself wearing a bullet-proof vest provided by the F.B.I.

Brook Trout and the Writing Life is part autobiography, part fishing literature, all imbued with a sense of the delight and mystery in moving water and wild brookies. This is a gem of a book, by one of America’s finest novelists.

Trombone

Craig Nova’s classic novel Trombone is a powerful and poignant portrait of the complexities between an arsonist father and his good son. Dean Gollancz is an easygoing man of modest means. He longs for the Big Time, and when his job at the Print Shop doesn’t pay the bills, he commits arson for a Chinese gangster in Los Angeles. His son Ray feels deep love and loyalty for his father, but when he wins an Ivy League scholarship, Ray must decide how much of his own life to sacrifice for Dean’s respect. The destructive nature of their relationship is brought to the fore when Iris, a classmate of Ray’s, becomes his father’s lover. Longing for Iris and knowing he can never be like Dean, Ray must decide whether he even wants to be, and whether it is right to be that way at all. “[Nova’s novels] deserve to be ranked among the best American fiction of the past two decades.” — Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post “Trombone is a novel of crime, passion, adventure … by one of our most acclaimed and prolific fiction writers.” — Howard Frank Mosher

The Universal Donor

Bitten by one of the snakes she is studying, Virginia Lee, an accomplished herpetologist, drives herself to the hospital, carrying a decaying antidote and using her pantyhose as a tourniquet to slow the poison’s path in her bloodstream. Through the hideous traffic of L.A., she must reach her lover Terry McKechnie, who works as an emergency-room physician. Her hope and faith is in him, even as it has been withdrawn from her husband, Terry’s college friend. After her arrival, Virginia desperately needs transfusions of her rare blood type — and only an explosive criminal-at-large with whom Terry has already clashed can save her life, In this “absolutely bewitching” (Jonathan Harr) novel, Craig Nova brings us into the moral morass of contemporary America, gripping us with the beauty of his exacting prose and the suspense of his riveting emotional drama.