

“Damn exciting.”--Stewart O’Nan,
author of Snow Angels, Faithful,
Songs for the Missing
“At once memoir, confession, travel
book and thriller, David Vann's A Mile
Down is so vivid and intense you will
dread to see it end…. The book is a
testimony of passion and courage in
deadly storms and scarier calms, of
a man wrestling with his ghosts and
gifts in the very shadow of paradise."
--Robert Morgan, author of Gap
Creek and Brave Enemies
“A Mile Down is pure adrenaline.
Vann by all rights should have died
at sea, and yet he’s lived to tell about
it. But the thrill comes also from
other kinds of risk—risk of repeating
his father’s suicide, risk of financial
disaster, risk of prosecution, risk of
losing everything including who he
believes himself to be.”
--Melanie Thernstrom, author of
The Dead Girl and Halfway Heaven
“As if one of the heroes of The
Perfect Storm had lived to write his
memoirs.”
--Julie Hilden, author of 3 and The
Bad Daughter
“A Mile Down is far more than a tale
of ruin at sea. It’s a story, also, of
desire and shame, of the struggle to
escape our histories and know our
dreams. You have to read this book,
even if you care nothing about
sailing or the sea. Just read it.”
--Lalita Tademy, author of Cane
River
“A Mile Down is superbly crafted.
David Vann has created a tale of
hubris and endurance that is both
exciting and beautifully written.”
--Keith Scribner, author of The
Goodlife and Miracle Girl
“A Mile Down is a riveting and truthful
account of a good man’s attempt to
stay afloat on treacherous waters.
This book reminded me of Robert
Stone’s Outerbridge Reach, or John
Casey’s Spartina, but in many ways
Vann’s odyssey is more
unforgettable. The fact that Vann
lived to tell it is an achievement in
itself.”
--Tom Barbash, author of The Last
Good Chance and On Top of the
World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard
Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss
&Renewal
“Mandatory reading for anyone who’s
ever flirted with thoughts of a life
spent at sea.”
--A. Manette Ansay, author of
Vinegar Hill and Midnight
Champagne
"David Vann's book is a story both
about life and sailing. On any long
offshore passage there are
emotional highs and lows, good
weather and bad, successes and
frustrations. It turns out that life is
similar. Everybody will enjoy David's
beautifully written book; sailors will
learn about life and non-sailors will
better understand the lure of the sea
and boats."
--Stan Honey, Navigator for
Pyewacket, Cheyenne, ABNAmro
David Vann’s work has
appeared in The Atlantic
Monthly, Esquire, Men's
Journal, Outside, Outside's
GO, National Geographic
Adventure, Writer's Digest,
and other magazines and
won various prizes and
awards. Currently a National
Endowment for the Arts
Fellow, he's also been a
Wallace Stegner Fellow,
taught at Stanford, Cornell,
SF State, and FSU, and is a
professor at the University of
San Francisco. He was born
on Adak Island, Alaska and
lives in the SF Bay Area with
his wife Nancy. He recently
found out he's part
Cherokee, related to the
Cherokee Chief David Vann..
Author David Vann
© Copyright 2005-10 David Vann
#4 Washington Post #7 L.A. Times
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"From the shores of Vann’s
Alaska one can see the
Russia of Turgenev’s Fathers
and Sons… “A father, after
all,” Vann writes, “is a lot for
a thing to be.” A son is also
a lot for a thing to be; so is
an artist. With Legend of a
Suicide David Vann proves
himself a fine example of
both"
--Tom Bissell, The New York
Times
"With "Legend of a Suicide,"
Vann looks into the dark and
isolated heart of the
American soul. It is a
devastating journey that is
difficult to read but
impossible to put down and
equally impossible to forget."
--The San Francisco
Chronicle
"The book is as dark, stormy, and
beautiful as the ragged Aleutian
coast."
--National Geographic Adventure
"This is one of the most striking
fictional debuts in recent memory,
and David Vann is an important new
voice in American literature."--Robert
Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of A Good Scent from a
Strange Mountain
“Vann uses startling powers of
observation to create strong
characters, tense scenes and
genuine surprises.”
--Publishers Weekly
"As the title suggests, the stories in
Legend of a Suicide approach a
private mythos, revisiting,
reinvestigating and reinventing one
family's broken past. They also
transport us to wild, uncharted places
on the Alaskan coast and in the
American soul. Throughout, David
Vann is a generous, surehanded
guide in some very dangerous
territory."--Stewart O'Nan, author of
Snow Angels, Last Night at the
Lobster, Faithful
"Based on his father’s suicide 28
years ago, MJ contributor David Vann’
s debut fiction collection is as primal
and unforgiving as the Alaskan wilds
where it’s set."
--Men's Journal
“The characters in these stories are
extreme in their isolation from one
another, whether they come together
in a howling wind or in the comforts of
a warm kitchen. Here is suicide,
infidelity, madness; here are people
whose skewed optimism about the
next love affair, the next career, the
next homestead, proves deadly. . . .
Memory, affection for place, the
mangled ways we manage to
express the love we feel—David Vann
is unafraid of the weight and the
complication of these things. He is
emboldened in these stories to fall
headlong into the disorienting
wilderness of the human heart and
mind.”
--Noy Holland, Gracy Paley Prize
Juror
Paperback from Harper Perennial March 2010:
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Winner, California Book Award
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(French edition from Editions Gallmeister)
A wonderful first novel…. Absolutely unforgettable. -RTL (French Radio)
A detonation...few recent novels know how to attain such an intensity. -Le Figaro Magazine
A book of rare power. -Madame Figaro
Moments that remind us of the Richard Ford of Rock Springs. -Livres Hebdo
A beautiful text, tragic and dark. -Le Matricule des Anges
A gifted American novelist. -L'Express
Magnifique. -TÉLÉRAMA
Un premier roman comme on en voit peu. -LE FIGARO
Haletant. Un romancier américain surdoué. -L'EXPRESS
Un roman hallucinant. -LE CANARD ENCHAÎNÉ
Un prodigieux premier roman [...] Absolument inoubliable. --RTL
Ce livre marque l'entrée brillante d'une nouvelle voix dans la littérature américaine, celle de David Vann. --FRANCE INFO
Un diamant pur [...] Vous n'en sortirez pas indemne. --FEMME ACTUELLE
Un livre qu'il vaut mieux commencer face à quelques heures de liberté, car son emprise rapide ne vous laissera aucune échappatoire. Un livre terrible, d'une force radioactive, un accélérateur du rythme cardiaque. --LA CROIX
Un premier roman comme une sourde déflagration. La naissance d'un écrivain en direct et 200 pages qui sautent aux yeux comme de la grenaille. [...] peu de romans récents ont su atteindre une telle intensité. --LE FIGARO MAGAZINE
Une allégorie des rapports filiaux et de leur impossibilité d'échapper à la névrose. --LE MONDE MAGAZINE
Un cheminement bouleversant au cœur des zones les plus douloureuses de l'existence humaine. [Un] beau texte, tragique et sombre... --LE MATRICULE DES ANGES
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Italian editions from Bompiani
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'An American classic.' --The Sunday Times
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Sukkwan Island a French bestseller, shortlisted for the Prix des Lecteurs de L'Express 2010
'A piece of relentless, heartbreaking brilliance that
bears comparison with Cormac McCarthy's The Road.'
--The Weekend Australian
'David Vann's extraordinary and inventive set of
fictional variations on his father's death will surely
become an American classic.'
--The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
2009
Comparisons to pinnacles of modernism would be too
large a burden for most young writers to bear, but
Vann's back may be broad enough. There is a distinct
feeling when reading Legend of a Suicide that this
latest star from across the Atlantic can rise further
still.'
--The Independent on Sunday
'Its UK publisher’s comparisons with the likes of Wolff
and Richard Ford aren’t, for once, misplaced.'
--The Guardian
'One jaw-droppingly powerful, courageous and
original fiction debut...As a 10th work of fiction this
would be impressive; as a debut, it is remarkable."
--The Sunday Telegraph
'Extraordinary...Reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Vann’s
prose is as pure as a gulp of water from an Alaskan
stream.'
--The Financial Times
'A fractured, disturbing, and seriously impressive work
of literature.'
--BBC World Service
'Quite possibly the finest American debut of the year.'
--The Independent
'Sukkwan Island contains not a single wrong note, and
makes most other modern fiction seem anaemic and
insubstantial by comparison... It is the shape of Vann's
prose which continually astonishes. This is the sort of
book which can be opened at random and devoured
simply for the rhythm and stark beauty of its
sentences... Vann's vision will be too merciless for
some, but Legend Of A Suicide marks the fictional
debut of a truly great writer.'
--The Irish Sunday Independent
'David Vann’s fictionalized memoir of his father’s
suicide, told through a series of harrowing, beautifully
rendered stories, is a modern American classic.'
--The Sunday Times
'Unputdownable'
--The London Evening Standard
'Extraordinary...Vann has written something truly
memorable, disturbing and heartbreaking.'
--The Courier Mail (Australia)
'Vann has a gift for using the landscape to mirror the
emotional isolation of the father and son.'
--The Sydney Morning Herald
'The son spins a lethal web of memory and imagination
to achieve a darkly disturbing revenge. A deeply
affecting and spookily evocative literary debut.'
--The Sunday Canberra Times
'The keynote of this cunningly structured fictionalised
memoir is its tone of raw authenticity...painful and
beautifully written.'
--The Daily Mail
'Vann’s book contains one enormous surprise so
unthinkable—and yet, when you do think about it, so
emotionally fitting—that it acts like a body blow. I don’
t think I’ve ever been so torn apart, so changed...
there’s a streak of reckless violence at the heart of
this book which rings truer than anything else I’ve
read on the subject.'
--Julie Myerson, Prospect Magazine
'For the imagery alone and for the sentences, the
book would be a treasure, but the story it tells – the
story of the suicide of the author's father – has an
immediacy and sharpness made all the more special
by the tone of distance in the narrative and the beauty
of the writing.'
--Colm Toibin, in Best Books of the Year for The
Observer
‘It is in that terse, yet heavily freighted American style
of Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff and Cormac McCarthy
where small incidents and details ring with a far more
resonant significance than they first appear to have …
The result is a richly dense, emotionally complex set
of stories, superbly written.'
--David Mills, Esquire UK
Oh my god, Legend of a Suicide just bowled me over
completely. It is such a tender, heartbreaking,
breathtaking, horrifying and insanely compelling read
that when I finished it I went straight back to the
beginning and round again. I implore anyone with
functioning eyes to read this book.'
--Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the
Machine
'A sad and heartbreakingly wise story.'
--MarieClaire UK
'Perfectly crafted, heartbreaking.'
--Grazia
'Heart-rending.'
--Harper’s Bazaar
‘This is my ‘One to watch’, a literary debut set in Alaska
about the effects of a father’s suicide on his son. It’s
stunning, beautifully written, with genuine surprises
and a complexity which makes you retrace your steps,
wonder what really happened and ponder over the
whole scenario for days. I loved it. It’s Richard Yates,
Annie Proulx territory, and highly recommended’
--Sarah Broadhurst, The Bookseller
"Headlong narrative pacing, a memorable train-wreck
father who gives Richard Russo's characters a run for
their money, and a sure, sharp, inviting voice. So hard
to put down that I am thinking of suing David Vann for
several hours of lost sleep"
--Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk about Kevin
"The most powerful, and pure, piece of writing I have
read for a very long time. This book squeezes more
life out of the first 100 pages than most books could
manage in 1000, which is pretty impressive,
considering it's a book about death"
--Ross Raisin, author of God’s Own Country, and the
Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2009
"An extraordinary piece of work. David Vann’s dark
and strange book twists through natural forces and
compressed emotions towards an extraordinary and
dreamlike conclusion. One of the most gripping
debuts I’ve ever read"
--Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan, winner of the 2009
BBC Samuel Johnson Prize
"In his portrayal of a young son's love for his lost
father David Vann has created a stunning work of
fiction: surprising, beautiful and intensely moving"
--Nadeem Aslam, author of Maps for Lost Lovers
'David Vann's Legend of a Suicide comprises of a
novella and five stories that have already brought the
writer recognition in his native America. The novella
centres on another heartbreaking event: the moment
when Roy, still only a child, learns that his father put a
gun to his own head and ended his life.
Unsurprisingly, that irrevocable loss dominates his
life. Vann tells the story of his attempts to
comprehend and to reconcile himself to it in a
sustained piece of writing that often shocks with its
raw emotion and energy'
--Alex Clark, Waterstone’s Books Quarterly magazine
Caribou Island, a novel,
coming soon
Crocodile: Memoirs
From A Mexican
Drug-Running Port,
winner of a National
Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship 2008, a new,
unpublished memoir which
tells the story of the initial
disasters in Mexico leading
up to A Mile Down. Read an
excerpt of Crocodile at
www.arts.gov. Four years of
feature film options sold.
Other forthcoming foreign editions of Legend of a Suicide:
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'His legend is at once the truest memoir and the purest fiction...Nothing quite like this book has been written before.' --The Observer
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Times Literary Supplement Best Books of the Year 2009 Observer Best Books of the Year 2009 Guardian Books of the Decade: Your Best Books of 2009, Christmas Books 2009, 2009 The Year of the Story Australian Literary Review #1 Book of the Year 2009 Sunday Business Post (Ireland) Critics' Choice 2009 Independent Culture Review of the Year 2009 Telegraph Best Books of the Year 2009 London Evening Standard Best Books of the Year 2009 New Statesman Best Books of the Year 2009 Sunday Times Best Books in Autumn and Year Ahead in Books 2009 The Times 3 To Watch 2009 Esquire UK Gift List 2009 Harper's Bazaar Autumn's Essential Reads 2009
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'A truly great writer.' --The Irish Sunday Independent
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'Brilliant . . . Vann’s prose follows the sinews of Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway, yet has its own nimble flex.' --The Times
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Last Day On Earth: A
Portrait of the NIU
Shooter, Steve
Kazmierczak
winner of the 2009 AWP
Nonfiction Prize, judged by
Lee Gutkind, to be published
fall 2011
A new great American novelist. -France Info
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A pure diamond. -Femme Actuelle
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An astounding novel. -Le Canard
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One of the best writers of his generation. -Le Figaro
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A masterpiece. -France Inter
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One of McCarthy's true heirs. A writer is born. -Sud Ouest
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Norwegian editions from Gyldendal Norsk Forlag
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The great American novel we've awaited. -Le Point
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Danish editions from Gyldendalske Boghandel
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Dutch editions from De Bezige Bij
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