M. Smith’s Newest Work Launches Today to Great Fanfare

From information obtained from the author’s publisher (Lee Boudreaux Books/Little, Brown & Co.)/Press Release and  The Dispatch

COLUMBUS, MS –

Michael Farris Smith, award-winning author of 2013’s “Rivers,” will be officially releasing his brand-new book, “Desperation Road,” to the public tonight at an event from 5 to 7 PM. The event will be held at Book Mart at 501 Main Street in downtown Columbus. Please stop by the store to pick up a copy and show your support for a local author!

The book describes “Russell Gaines on the morning he is finally released from the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections: ‘In the southern Mississippi swamp you can watch the world awaken as the pale yellow sun edges itself between the trees and moss and widewinged cranes.…Limbs too old to hold themselves up any longer bend and break like old men accepting their marshy graves.'” It goes on to tell of how he must now adapt to how the world has changed in the eleven years of his incarceration, and how he must adapt even more quickly to the angry relatives of a man whose death he was held responsible for…and that’s just for starters.

Initial reviews of the work give it high praise:

“DESPERATION ROAD is a brilliantly compelling novel dealing with an enormously difficult but fundamental reality of the human condition: how lives lived intensely for years without connection to or even knowledge of each other can suddenly intersect with profound consequences. Michael Farris Smith is a prodigiously talented writer whose new book is not only an exciting read but an important literary event.” —Robert Olen Butler, author of A Small Hotel

“A novel that lends dignity and grace to those too often damned, DESPERATION ROAD is fearless, guttural, and thunderously heartfelt. Quite simply one of our finest writers at work today, Michael Farris Smith has made his own place at the table.”—David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends to Go

“Anchored by prose that is both poetic and brutal, DESPERATION ROAD is a gorgeous and violent book. But don’t be fooled by the title. Michael Farris Smith’s novel teems with the honest and believable humanity that only the bravest writers dare to search for in the most troubled souls.” —Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street

Smith was honored for his work as part of last month’s “Goose’s Grand Gala.”