The Fruit of Stone

Mark Spragg's first book, Where Rivers Change Direction, was one of the very best American memoirs of recent years, praised for its 'sublime and staggering prose...and a genuine intuitive passion which makes every page of this wonderful book so seductive' (Independent on Sunday). Now, with The Fruit of Stone, Spragg emerges as a novelist of the very first rank. 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. Spragg's characters are unforgettable, his prose is at once tender and muscular, his portrait of the harsh but beautiful landscape breathtaking. With this remarkable novel he takes his place beside Cormac McCarthy, Thomas McGuane and Kent Haruf as one of the great contemporary chroniclers of the American West.