THE LAST HUNTER: AN AMERICAN FAMILY ALBUM marks
Will's return to adult narratives. Look for this intensely personal memoir
in September, 2010.
In this paperback original, several new stories complement the author's hand-picked favorites from the original collection, A Gravestone Made of Wheat. Together, the stories offer a vivid portrait of swirling, intergenerational changes in the Midwest. New highlights include "Blaze of Glory," a poignant tale of an RV road trip and a senior couple. In "Haircut," a young boy and his beloved grandfather struggle to communicate across a great cultural divide. In the capstone story "The Last Farmer," a high-tech farmer's dilemma is with history, tradition, and an old house on his land. Twelve stories in all portray the yearnings of the human spirit and the continuing, sometimes wrenching transformation of America's Midwest. "Among the best books of the year…"—Minneapolis Tribune.
Author Commentary: This collection came about as a tie-in to the movie Sweet Land, based on the story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat." It was tough picking the "best of" my older stories, and fun adding some brand new ones (I think "The Last Farmer" is some of my strongest work). I also like the mix of seriousness and humor in this collection.
Minnesota's barns are remarkable testaments to a Midwestern way of life, one centered on the land, work, family, ingenuity, and perseverance. In a new venture for Will Weaver, he collaborates with photographer Doug Ohman on a fiction book to showcase the striking variety of these exceptional landmarks. Built by hand in wood, stone, brick, or metal, these barns date back as far as 1880. Where Ohman's photographs capture the beauty of the barn from the outside in, Will Weaver's evocative story illuminates the life of the barn from the inside out. Readers witness the making and breaking of one barn as it plays into the life and sustenance of several generations of one family who settled the land in 1922 and who farmed into the age of agribusiness–and the end of big barns. Seventy-five beautiful color photographs accompanied by Weaver's moving story uplift these beautiful buildings and a way of life on the land. "[B]y far the best book yet on the vanishing icons of our rural landscape."—Robert Hedin
Author Commentary: I had to be sold on this Minnesota Historical Society project; after all, I'm a fiction writer. But after seeing Doug Ohman's photos, I agreed to write--something. I wanted to do more than write captions; my solution was to write the imagined life of one barn. It turned out to be a lovely book.
This collection of stories is set against the beauty of Midwestern farm landscapes and small-town life. "Short stories like these make you feel good about American writing," wrote Kerry Luft in the Chicago Tribune. "A memorable assemblage of meticulously rendered stories that generate warmth, humor and compassion," wrote Lucas Carpenter in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Some small, polished gems, others longer and full-bodied, these twelve stories carry a remarkable range of characters, but their dilemmas are tightly drawn and universal: one farmer's moral dilemma about attending the dispersal auction of a neighboring farmer; a woman academic's struggle with small town roots, and a man "back home" who loves her; an old man's struggle with keeping a promise to his wife. "[A] graceful collection, one that views America's heartland with a candid but charitable eye."—New York Times
Author Commentary: Short story collections seldom excite a publisher, and I was able to get this book published on the coattails of my novel, Red Earth, White Earth. The stories in GMOW got me started down the path of fiction, and I'm very fond of them for that reason. This collection is also my testament to the realistic short story as a literary form. If you want to write fiction, the short story is great place to start.
Weaver's best-selling 1986 debut novel was adapted for television film and broadcast by CBS. The plot explores the lingering conflict between Native Americans and whites in the contemporary Midwest. At the center of tension is land and birthright. The novel opens with prodigal son Guy Pehrsson returning to the land, summoned by his grandfather's terse letter: "Trouble here. Come home when you can." Guy finds the unambiguous world of his childhood shattered. Local Ojibwe Indians have laid claim to the Pehrsson farm, as well as other lands nearby, and tensions run high. To complicate matters, Guy's mother has fled an empty marriage, finding sanctuary with a young Indian lover. How Guy Pehrsson makes peace with his past, confronts his present, and faces his future is the story of this novel, which reviewers likened to the hard-hitting realism of John Steinbeck. "[T]hat rare, real thing, a writer of uncommon talent."—L.A. Times
Author Commentary: After some years of working in the short story form, I knew RE,WE was a story that could not be contained in twenty-some pages. It's an intensely personal family story, fictionalized, about culture clash and land. When the novel was half-written, my agent quickly sold it (in a publisher's bidding war) for a six-figure sum. My literary life was turned upside down-and I still had to finish the book. It has some obvious first-novel flaws (one critic said that I tried to squeeze three novels into one), but there's some good writing in spots, and one has to start somewhere with the novel form.
© 2010 Will Weaver. Will Weaver Books. All Rights Reserved.
Maintained by Design Angler.
Photography courtesy of John Bauer.
