An Unfinished Life

'Imagine the spirit of Hemingway reborn in the soul of a ranch-owner's son in Wyoming' - Esquire

In this evocative novel, Spragg [uses] the grandeur of the American landscape to provide a haunting backdrop for the drama of his characters' lives

A meticulously assembled and highly polished piece of work

Mark Spragg is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, a memoir that won the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and The Fruit of Stone, a novel. He lives in Cody, Wyoming.

Jean Gilkyson is living in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realises this kind of life has to stop, especially for her nine-year-old daughter, Griff. But the only place they can run to is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean's family are dead and her father-in-law, the only person who could take them in, wishes she was too. 
 
Einar Gilkyson blames Jean for the accident that took his son's life, and has chosen to go on living simply because without him his oldest friend, Mitch, wouldn't survive. Bound together like brothers since the Korean War, the intimacy between the two men has deepened after Mitch was crippled in a bear attack while Einar helplessly watched. 
 
As Einar and Jean struggle with their memories, it is left to spirited and courageous Griff to turn their loss, wrath and recrimination into reconciliation, love, and, most importantly, a new life.

Mark Spragg

Spragg's idiomatic prose hums with the raw poetry of the natural world... As much as it a tragic romance, his novel is also a passionate love letter to the land

Mark Spragg owns one of the truest most original new voices in American letters

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.

Mark Spragg

Praise for The Fruit of Stone

Spragg's idiomatic prose hums with the raw poetry of the natural world... As much as it a tragic romance, his novel is also a passionate love letter to the land

Mark Spragg owns one of the truest most original new voices in American letters

Books by Mark Spragg

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter