Forgiveness
(University of Texas Press, 2007)

"What a great pleasure it always is to watch Jim Grimsley's estimable sensibility at work observing and deconstructing the foibles and follies of modern culture. In Forgiveness he exposes, with devastating wit, our cult of body and of fame. This is a brilliant and important novel."

—Robert Olen Butler

"The Lifetime movie of my divorce and crime spree will be entitled Breakdown at Midnight.... Sympathy for my character will be established by my loss of a wildly respectable, lucrative job with Arthur Andersen, a company which turned out to be as crooked as its customers. I will be another orphan of the American Dream gone sour, and eventually I will give in to the so-called dark side of my nature when I strangle Carmine with the strap of her Prada bag, or stab her to death with a survivalist-quality knife, or bludgeon her skull to a bloody pulp with a classic Tiffany lamp; this part of the script will have to wait for the real event to unfold since, though I've decided that tomorrow will be the day I kill her, I have yet to choose how."

—Charley Stranger

Turning headline news into biting social satire, Jim Grimsley exposes the amorality of materialistic America in Forgiveness, a blackly comic tale of a bankrupt accounting executive who dreams of achieving stardom in the only way a pathetic failure can—by murdering his wife. As Charley Stranger imagines the crime, he fantasizes wildly unlikely encounters with celebrities—sharing marital woes with Nicole Kidman over a latte at Starbucks, being interviewed by Barbara Walters—while in real life his wife Carmine incessantly ridicules his inability to perform either in bed or in the marketplace. As Forgiveness veers to its shocking conclusion, it strips bare the corruption of the American Dream—the moral bankruptcy of corporate and political institutions, the hollowness of living in a media-saturated world, the delusion of buying love with luxury goods.

The Last Green Tree
(Tor Books, 2006)

Jim Grimsley’s previous science fiction novel, The Ordinary, was named one of the Top Ten science fiction books of the year by Booklist and won the Lambda Literary Award. His novels and short stories have been favorably compared to those of Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack Vance, and Samuel R. Delany. Now Grimsley returns to the richly complex milieu of The Ordinary with a gripping tale of magic, science, and an epic clash between godlike forces.

Three hundred years have passed since the Conquest, and the Great Mage rules over all of humanity, even as cybernetic links connect the varied worlds of the empire. Vast Gates allow travel from one planet to another, across unimaginable distances. Choirs of chanting priests maintain order, their songs subtly shaping reality, while the armies of the empire have known nothing but total victory for centuries.

But on the planet Aramen, where sentient trees keep human symbionts as slaves, a power has arisen that may rival that of the Great Mage himself. Hordes of unnatural creatures rampage across the planet, leaving death and destruction in their wake. An inhuman intelligence, cruel and implacable, meets the priests’ sung magic with a strange new music of its own. The Anilyn Gate is shut down, cutting off Aramen from the rest of humanity. The long era of peace is over.

Now a handful of traumatized survivors must venture deep into a hostile wilderness on a desperate mission to uncover the source of the enemy’s powers. And the future of the universe may depend on the untested abilities of one damaged child. . . .

The Last Green Tree is a worthy successor to The Ordinary and a compelling saga in its own right.

The Ordinary
(Tor Books, 2005)

The Twil Gate links two very different realms. On one side is Senal, an advanced civilization of thirty billion inhabitants, all cybernetically linked. On the other side is Irion, a land of myth and legend, where the world is flat and mighty wizards once ruled. Jedda Martele shares her peoples assumption that Irion is backward and superstitious and no match for her homelands superior numbers and technology. But as the two realms march toward war, Jedda finds herself at the center of events that will challenge everything she has ever believed about the world and herself.

Boulevard
(Algonquin, 2002)

Newell never really belonged in Pastel, Alabama. Ready for a change, he buys a one-way ticket to New Orleans. The year is 1978 and the rambunctious city beckons with its famous promise of bright lights, excitement, and men everywhere.

Newell makes his way, finding a job in a pornographic bookstore and renting a room in the French Quarter. His good nature, good looks, and a daring stunt in a popular bar make him a quick favorite of the town. Soon he has friends. Some are harmless, like Henry, a pudgy sidekick who's a frequent denizen of the porn shop's movie booths. Others prove more dangerous, like party-boy Mark, Newell's first beau, who has a penchant for recreational drugs. Finally, Newell encounters the volatile Jack, who shows Newell the blackest heart of the city.

BOULEVARD, Jim Grimsley's fifth novel, reminds us that Grimsley is what Publishers Weekly calls "an accomplished stylist and a complex moralist." He takes one character's dream and reveals what can happen when dreams are fulfilled.

Kirith Kirin
(Meisha Merlin, 2000)

The Blue Queen, upon resuming the throne while King Kirith Kirin's eternality is renewed in the Arthen forest, has partnered with a magician of the dark arts. No longer does she need to leave the throne to renew her eternal nature. Swayed by promises of the dark magician, she has claimed the throne forever and is extending her influence to the far corners of the world.

Malleable grey clouds, sidewinding wind and intelligent lightning bolts made the trip across the vast Girdle nearly impossible. Out of nowhere, the Blue Queen's Patrols made haste to kill the boy and the warrior before they could safely reach the deep forest of Arthen. Riding upon two magnificent stallions, one a royal Prince out of Queen Mnemarra, Jessex and his uncle Sivisal reached Arthen despite a deadly storm that reeked of magic. Thus begins Jessex's new life as he enters Arthen and enters into the royal court of Kirith Kirin.

Comfort & Joy
(Algonquin Books, 1999)

Young. Handsome. Rich. Doctor. Quite a dream boy, Ford McKinney is the perfect catch. Ford's family wants him home for the holidays. They have picked out a girl for him to marry. But Ford has news, too: he's fallen for an administrator at the hospital, a man by the name of Dan Crell.

To complicate things further, Dan and Ford come from opposite sides of the tracks. Dan's mother lives in a trailer at the edge of a cemetery where she is the caretaker; Ford's family lives in the best house on the best street of Savannah. Dan's mother knows her son well, knows that he will never marry, and she just wants to see him happy, and loved. To Ford even the idea of telling his family about his relationship seems impossible. Sometimes he can't believe it himself. And wouldn't you know it's Christmas when these two families reveal their true natures.

Comfort & Joy proves what we all suspect: going home for the holidays is never easy, whether you go alone or decide to bring a date--especially if that date is your gay lover. Grimsley triumphs in his new novel in which two unlikely lovers must reconcile what is expected of them with what they know in their hearts is right.

Jim Grimsley returns to the Southern landscape evoked so powerfully in his previous award-winning novels, Winter Birds and Dream Boy, to tell an unforgettable story of a woman's search for the meaning of a dream that has haunted her throughout her life.

Ever since Ellen Tote can remember, she has dreamed of her mother slowly drowning. Now, with her own children all grown and her siblings long gone, Ellen journeys back to her childhood for answers. Piecing together her memories, she finally articulates a story so shattering, it had long been silenced by fear and shame. Both heartrending and life-affirming, this compelling portrait of a brave yet tragic woman celebrates the courage and endurance of the human spirit.

With three critically acclaimed novels, Jim Grimsley proved himself a gifted storyteller. Now he shows his great gifts as a playwright in four powerful, award-winning dramas with themes of what happens when two different worlds collide and converge. Each play demonstrates in its own distinct way that differences are often a matter of perception. Together they establish Grimsley as a dramatist with imagination and verve.

Dream Boy
(Scribner, 1997)

Set in North Carolina, this novel "centers on Nathan, a shy, bright high-school sophomore who falls in love with Roy, the farm boy next door. The danger of discovery is compounded by hints of abuse from Nathan's father, which become explicit when the man tries to molest him. Nathan escapes on a camping trip with Roy and his two friends, a jaunt that ends in horror when the friends find the secret lovers in a compromising position, and one of the boys brutally rapes Nathan. But Roy at last openly accepts the younger boy as his lover."

Winter Birds
(Scribner, 1997)

This novel "recounts the tumultuous history of the Crells, a poor and transient Southern family, as seen through the eyes of Danny Crell, a dreamy eight-year-old hemophiliac. . . . The action is dominated by a brutally violent Thanksgiving Day quarrel between Bobjay, Danny's alcoholic father, and Ellen, his long-suffering mother.