by Mark Spragg In an extraordinary tale of love and forgiveness, Mark Spragg brings us this novel of a complex, prodigal homecoming.

Jean Gilkyson has a history of choosing the wrong men. After yet another night of argument turned to violence with her boyfriend, Roy, Jean knows it’s time to leave—if not for herself, then for her ten-year-old daughter, Griff. But the only place they can afford to go is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean’s family is dead and her deceased husband’s father Einar wishes Jean was too.

Of course, Griff knows none of this—only that here in Wyoming, with a grandfather she has never known and his crippled friend Mitch, she may finally be able to find a home.

About the author: Mark Spragg is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, a memoir that won the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers award, and the novels The Fruit of Stone and An Unfinished Life, which was chosen by the Rocky Mountain News as the Best Book of 2004. All three were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into fifteen languages. He lives with his wife, Virginia, in Wyoming.

Spragg continued the story of An Unfinished Life with the novel Bone Fire in 2010.

Reviews:

“The best parts of An Unfinished Life,…are its ancillary details - Einar's routine around the ranch, the desultory clutter of the sheriff's office - and the glimpses of the communal world that exists beyond its immediate focus, full of ground-down lives and soured destinies. Here, in half-a-dozen crisp little vignettes of small-town life…the novel…starts to work on its own terms.” D.J. Taylor, The Guardian, November 12, 2004.

“[Spragg] keeps the dialogue sparse and taut, each sentence feeling as if it was carefully thought through before spoken….What lingers long after readers turn the final page is an unforgettable portrayal of the irrepressible Griff. She is the heartbeat of this novel and Spragg has created a masterpiece in her character. And even though the book takes place in the West, Spragg has expanded his impressive skills by giving us a book that will resonate with everyone from Laramie to Eau Claire and beyond.” Stephen J. Lyons, San Francisco Chronicle, September 5, 2004. https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/A-fractured-family-tries-to-heal-under-the-vast-2727872.php

Made into a movie starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman in 2005. Screenplay by the author and his wife, Virginia Korus Spragg. Published in 2004 by Knopf, New York ISBN: 1400042011 Edition: First Edition, First Printing Binding: Hardcover Condition: New Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: new Comments: Description: 257 p. ; 25 cm.

LCCN: 2004040949 Signed Copy