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Madison Smartt Bell

(b.1957)

Madison Smartt Bell is a critically acclaimed writer of more than a dozen novels and story collections, as well as numerous essays and reviews for publications such as Harper's and the New York Times Book Review. His books have been finalists for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, among other honors.

Genres: Literary Fiction, Mystery

Series

Haitian Revolutionary trilogy
   1. All Souls' Rising (1995)
   2. Master of the Crossroads (2000)
   3. The Stone That the Builder Refused (2004)

Novels

   The Washington Square Ensemble (1983)
   Waiting for the End of the World (1985)
   Straight Cut (1986)
   The Year of Silence (1987)
   Soldier's Joy (1989)
   Doctor Sleep (1991)
   Save Me, Joe Louis (1993)
   Ten Indians (1996)
   Anything Goes (2002)
   Devil's Dream (2009)
   The Color of Night (2011)
   Behind the Moon (2017)

Collections

   Zero db (1987)
   Barking Man (1990)
   Zig Zag Wanderer (2015)

Novellas and Short Stories

Boy With a Coin (2011)
Prey ( (2012)

Series contributed to

New Stories from the South
New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2009 (2009)

Non fiction show

Madison Smartt Bell recommends

After Camus (2024)
Jay Neugeboren
"You need real courage to write Albert Camus as a fictional character. Jay Neugeboren, one of the best American writers of the 20th century and doing even better work in the 21st, has what it takes and more."

Devil Makes Three (2023)
Ben Fountain
"Devil Makes Three is a fast and riveting read, a gripping thriller braided with a couple of credible love stories. This novel will pin your ears back with some of its hard-won truths."

Skull Water (2023)
Heinz Insu Fenkl
"Skull Water is an amazingly rich mixture, and one it's difficult to classify. If, for instance, I were to think of it as a sort of autofiction, I could compare it to A Childhood - if the boy Harry Crews had needed to operate in both English and Korean and engage in all sorts of complex cultural codeswitching. But the book is also an elegantly structured, multi-stranded work of the imagination, enhanced by some little-known historical elements, and drawing on a deep well of Korean folklore - and extremely rewarding in all of its many dimensions."

Horse (2018)
Talley English
"Horse, by Talley English, might look like another story about a girl and her horse, which it is and is more: an unflinching examination of what it is to be an animal, what it is to be human, the difference and overlap between the two, and how to manage that intersection. Anyone who’s ever tried to care for a creature from a hamster on up will love it and learn from it. Brilliantly written, and ruthlessly felt, this novel marks the debut of a talent strong for the long haul."

The Removes (2018)
Tatjana Soli
"Tatjana Soli’s The Removes breathes new life into a story I thought I already knew inside out - the tale of George Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a century-old icon of American history, and exhaustively covered by Evan S. Connell’s Son of the Morning Star. Any writer entering these lists must be both bold and strong, and Soli proves herself all that, finding fresh blood in the strangely vexed, compelling romance between Custer and his wife Libbie, real pathos in the plight of captives both before and after ‘rescue,’ and surprising sympathy for the man who wanted - fatally too much - to be a hero."

The Black Painting (2018)
Neil Olson
"Neil Olson's The Black Painting is an expertly confected, delicious mystery/thriller, and also a deeper study of the family romance, with echoes of Cheever's 'Goodbye, My Brother'."

A Detailed Man (2011)
David Swinson
"A relentless tour of DCs most crime-ridden streets, with many beautifully written surprises, and darker than the deepest noir."

Sweetsmoke (2008)
David Fuller
"With Sweetsmoke, David Fuller gives an extraordinarily nuanced, privileged, and convincing view of the world of slavery during the American Civil War, and of the hearts and minds of the men and women who had to live in that world."

The Night Birds (2007)
Thomas Maltman
"We all set our sights on the Great American Novel. . . . [Thomas Maltman] comes impressively close to laying his hands on the grail."

The Madam (2003)
Julianna Baggott
"Profoundly different from anything she has done before, The Madam is an extraordinary novel which will open a whole new phase of what already looks like a brilliant career."

The True History of Paradise (1999)
Margaret Cezair-Thompson
"Fascinating . . . Cezair-Thompson writes with such talent, grace, and confidence."

Dogfight (1998)
Michael Knight
"Michael Knight's stories are tempered with both pathos and humor, and seasoned with many an unexpected twist. Dogfight and Other Stories has a bite more than equal to its bark."

Some Girls (1994)
Kristin McCloy
"Electric from the first page on... tingingly erotic... McCloy's sence of place is fantastically vivid."

Jack (1989)
A M Homes
"Honest, uncompromising and savagely funny."

River Dogs (1987)
Robert Olmstead
"Olmstead has the skill for lending every present moment an extraordinary, sensuous glow."

More recommendations

Books containing stories by Madison Smartt Bell

The Dark End of the Street (2010)
New Stories of Sex and Crime
edited by
S J Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer

New Stories from the South 2001 (2001)
The Year's Best
edited by
Shannon Ravenel

The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers (2001)
(The Mammoth Book of ...)
edited by
Michael Hemmingson

More books

Awards

	National Book Award for Fiction Best Book nominee (1995) : All Souls' Rising
	PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction Best Book nominee (1996) : All Souls' Rising

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