Born and raised in Houston, Texas, outdoor/conservation writer Rick Bass attended Utah State University to study wildlife management but later switched to petroleum engineering because it seemed more practical. That did not last. His connection to nature and his desire to be in it caused him to hop into a pick-up truck with his wife one day and just start driving, not knowing where they would end up. Their search led them to the Yaak Valley in northern Montana where Bass now lives and works. This valley formed the foundation for the stories that unfold in his beautiful first novel, Where the Sea Used to Be.

Where the Sea Used to Be is, first and foremost, a character study. It does not thrust you immediately into a tightly wound plot, but instead slowly reveals the many layers of the main characters. This is the story of a clash of wills the story of the struggle between a father and daughter, and two men: his proteges, her lovers. Old Dudley is a wildly successful oil prospector with a system. He delights in taking a raw, young geologist and breaking him, eventually molding him to his will and in the process invariably crushing him. Matthew represents one of his greatest successes, having found innumerable oil fields, but he is nearly broken, approaching the end of his usefulness. He is also the somewhat estranged lover of Old Dudley’s daughter, Mel. Wallis is Dudley’s newest project. After putting Wallis to work with Matthew in Houston, Old Dudley sends him North, to a remote and isolated valley in Montana the same valley where Mel lives and studies wolves.

What follows is a gradual unveiling of life in the valley. Each chapter contains separate vignettes of the valley’s way of life, held together by a peaceful narrative. Bass’s descriptions of the valley illustrate the intertwined nature of humans and their surroundings, as well as the struggle between nature and intrusion of humankind. His writing, like that of Thoreau or Aldo Leopold, is the voice of someone who is at peace with the world in which he lives. He does not write about nature so much as feels it, and the most beautiful part of the book is that he is able to convey to the reader that sense of understanding, of awe and wonder. Where the Sea Used to Be is a serene and languid book. It does not urge you to finish, but rather to enjoy the experience, to savor the descriptions and to become one with the valley and its people. Reading Where the Sea Used to Be is like taking a slow hike through the hills, or canoeing down a lazy river. In no rush to get anywhere, you are able to enjoy the sights, the sounds, the smells. Bass reminds us that we should do this more often, and after reading the Where the Sea Used to Be, you will most likely agree.

Reviewed by Wes Breazeale.

Writing fiction requires talents akin to those of, say, a con artist: an ability to lie convincingly, a fervent belief in imagined worlds, and a cocky confidence that your audience wants to be seduced by deception. In My Heart Laid Bare, a mythic family saga spanning generations, these qualities are embraced by both Joyce Carol Oates and her tragic, mesmerizing characters.

Abraham Licht is patriarch of a household that includes six children and a gothic housekeeper of unexplained origins. The three women who bore the children are long-gone, unable to adjust to the drama of the con artist’s life one minute flush with money, the next running from the law. With fervor and unquestioned certainty, Abraham has dedicated his life to this Game, complete with commandments, prophecies, and ancestors of biblical proportions. Devoutly, he raises his motherless children within the constructed value system of this con world, teaching them from infancy that “God is theirs and the Game, ours.” Inside this morally charged context, Oates poetically describes the simplicity common to almost every family childhood games, sibling love and rivalry, adolescent awakenings and the unusual elements of the Licht family stemming from their religion of deception. Abraham deems four of his children suitable to join him at the Game, the other two he leaves behind at Muirkirk a renovated church at the edge of a swamp, and mystical sanctuary from the Enemy. In the exterior world, Abraham and his children develop elaborate cons that include new personalities, counterfeited history, and manipulation of their victim’s hidden secrets. Initially languid, the story becomes increasingly urgent as all the children reach adulthood, each with their unique adaptation to their father’s world. Oates shifts narrative voices, giving Abraham and each child an opportunity to explain the world from their point of view, emphasizing the details most important to each. In less masterful hands, this alternating narration might be confusing, but her technique is wonderfully successful, resulting in a rich layer of actions and emotions. Her style is impressionistic, with repeating phrases, sparse description, and metaphorical actions. It mimics the way we process both the banal and the exciting in everyday life. Vicariously, the reader experiences the heady mixture of thrill, intrigue, and superiority that accompany a successful con. Oates also conveys the brutal humiliation and violence of a scam gone wrong, and the tragic consequences of the Licht religion for Abraham’s children. Ultimately, the Game becomes a metaphor for life itself. While Abraham’s biography is full of adventure (of a sort), Oates reminds us that time, the eternal equalizer, dishes out the same events, no matter how dressed up they may be with deception or imagination. At the end, even the life of a con artist can be distilled into a few simple truths common to us all including the fact that Joyce Carol Oates has, yet again, written a richly textured and exciting book.

Reviewed by Kathleen McFall.

vers Row imprint makes its debut As the market for African-American books grows, mainstream publishers are seeking new ways to meet the demand. The readership is evolving quickly in its hunger for a more diverse, increasingly sophisticated array of books a challenge that has sent publishing houses scrambling to find fresh ways to keep that momentum going. One of their approaches has been to create specialized imprints geared to the African-American customer, producing books that are soulful and innovative but with a commercial touch.

At last count, seven such imprints, all backed by large mainstream publishing houses, are currently in competition to woo black readers. The imprints are Ballantine’s One World Books, Doubleday’s Harlem Moon, Kensington Publishing’s Dafina Books, HarperCollins’ Amistad Press, Hyperion’s Jump At The Sun and Warner Books’ Walk Worthy Press. The latest entry is Strivers Row, launched by the Villard division of Random House, which joined the publishing marketplace in January with its first offering of new books. Under the savvy leadership of associate editor Melody Guy, Strivers Row plans to be out front with a daring, ground-breaking series of new voices in its line of African-American literature published as trade paperbacks.

“We’re going to find those books which are quite important but were first self-published or published by small houses,” Guy explained to BookPage. “By publishing these books as trade paperbacks with a lower price, we can take a chance on new authors and build careers. There will be many new names introduced to readers who will both surprise and enchant them.” Strivers Row will publish nine titles a year, mainly works by first-time authors. The imprint’s debut list includes: Parry A. Brown’s novel, The Shirt Off His Back, a riveting look at a black single father’s dogged effort to create a loving home for his 11-year-old twin girls; Guy Johnson’s debut historic epic; Standing at the Scratch Line, the tale of anti-hero King Tremain who will stop at nothing to preserve his family; and Nichelle D. Tramble’s searing “hip-hop noir” novel, The Dying Ground, a dark thriller of drugs, deception and secret lives.

Coming later this year, Strivers Row will offer two previously self-published works: Travis Hunter’s revealing fictional male relationship saga, Hearts of Men; and Satin Doll, Gloria Mallette’s sexy suspense novel of an adulterous woman who finds the tables turned on her when the wife of a lover starts to stalk her. Also coming up is Solomon Jones’ hard-edged mystery, Pipe Dreams, a no-holds barred story of a Philadelphia politician found dead in a crack house and the ruthless hunt for his killers.

“We’re looking for new voices and new visions,” Guy concludes. “We want to expand the boundaries of African-American literature, and Strivers Row is just the vehicle to do that. There are readers out there seeking something different and challenging. We’re going to provide that for them.”

He’s made his mark in the Hollywood mainstream as a popular leading man and an Academy Award-winning director as well as in the maverick world of independent filmmaking, where he presides over Utah’s prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Throughout his enduring career, Robert Redford has also displayed uncanny acumen for spotting hot movie properties. The Horse Whisperer, which he co-produced, directed, and starred in opposite Kristin Scott Thomas is his latest coup. Originally slated as a 1997 release but pushed back because of weather woes (wrought by El Nino) during filming, the movie adaptation of Nicholas Evans’s bestseller opens this month. Evans was a struggling screenwriter when he got the idea for what became a publishing phenomenon. In fact, the first-time novelist was only halfway through writing the unabashedly sentimental tome about hope and redemption when his agent released the manuscript. Then came frenzy, Hollywood style. Following a voracious bidding war, Redford emerged victorious shelling out $3 million. Little wonder that when North American publishing rights were later offered, Dell Publishing spent a record $3,150,000. And the rest, as the story goes, is history . . .

So how will the movie compare with the book? Would-be critics can easily brush-up with the new movie tie-in version out this month. The Horse Whisperer moves briskly, with its story of a Montana loner who’s asked to heal a young girl and her horse following a tragic accident. Along the way, the country guy falls for the mother (a city gal), and love proves to be the strongest medicine of all. Should the movie become as much a favorite as the book, there could be a stampede for the handsomely produced, The Horse Whisperer: An Illustrated Companion to the Major Motion Picture. Reviewed by Pat H. Broeske.