An Unfinished Life (Signed First Edition)

Mark Spragg

ISBN 10: 037543433X / ISBN 13: 9780375434334

Published by Knopf (New York), 2004

About this Item

New York: Knopf, 2004. First edition. First printing. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Publisher s original price intact on jacket flap. Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. A pristine copy with no faults. Octavo. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the title page, name only, without inscription. "An Unfinished Life" tells the story of Einar Gilkyson, an aging Wyoming rancher haunted by loss, whose life is upended when his widowed daughter-in-law and granddaughter return, forcing him to reckon with family, grief, and forgiveness. Mark Spragg (1952 2021) was an American novelist and memoirist whose earlier works include the memoir "Where Rivers Change Direction" (1999) and the novel "The Fruit of Stone" (2002). "An Unfinished Life," his second novel, was adapted into a 2005 film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman.

Seller Inventory # boxer8

Bibliographic Details

• Title: An Unfinished Life (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Knopf (New York)
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 037543433X
• ISBN 13: 9780375434334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

“One of the truest and most original new voices in American letters,” as Kent Haruf has written, Mark Spragg now tells the story of a complex, prodigal homecoming.

Jean Gilkyson is floundering in a trailer house in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realizes this kind of life has got to stop, especially for the sake of her daughter, Griff. But the only place they can run to is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean’s loved ones are dead and her father-in-law, the only person who could take them in, wishes that she was too. For a decade, Einar Gilkyson has blamed her for the accident that took his son’s life, and he has chosen to go on living himself largely because his oldest friend couldn’t otherwise survive. They’ve been bound together like brothers since the Korean War and now face old age on a faltering ranch, their intimacy even more acute after Mitch was horribly crippled while Einar helplessly watched.

Of course, ten-year-old Griff knows none of this–only that her father is dead and her mother has bad taste in men. But once she encounters this grandfather she’d never heard about, and the black cowboy confined to the bunkhouse, with irrepressible courage and great spunk she attempts to turn grievous loss, wrath, and recrimination–to which she’s naturally the most vulnerable–toward reconciliation and love.

Immediately compelling and constantly surprising, rich in character, landscape, and compassion, An Unfinished Life shows a novelist of extraordinary talents in the fullness of his powers.

About the Author

Mark Spragg is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, a memoir that won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, and The Fruit of Stone, a novel. Both were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into seven languages. He lives in Cody, Wyoming.