A brilliant new work that returns Richard Ford to the hallowed territory that sealed his reputation as an American master: the world of Frank Bascombe, and the landscape of his celebrated novels The Sportswriter, the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner winning Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land.

In his trio of world-acclaimed novels portraying the life of an entire American generation, Richard Ford has imagined one of the most indelible and widely discussed characters in modern literature, Frank Bascombe. Through Bascombe--protean, funny, profane, wise, often inappropriate--we've witnessed the aspirations, sorrows, longings, achievements and failings of an American life in the twilight of the twentieth century.

Now, in Let Me Be Frank with You, Ford reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In four richly luminous narratives, Bascombe (and Ford) attempts to reconcile, interpret and console a world undone by calamity. It is a moving and wondrous and extremely funny odyssey through the America we live in at this moment. Ford is here again working with the maturity and brilliance of a writer at the absolute height of his powers.

In his trio of critically acclaimed, bestselling novels--The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land--Richard Ford illuminated the zeitgeist of an entire generation, through the divinings of his now-famous literary chronicler, Frank Bascombe.

In Let Me Be Frank With You, Bascombe returns to narrate four deftly linked stories, having thrived--seemingly if not utterly--in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. As in all of the Bascombe books, Ford's guiding spirit is the old comic's maxim that promises if nothing's funny, nothing's truly serious; the desolation of Sandy could scarcely be more serious as the grist for fiction, yet it is the perfect backdrop. With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence, these stories range over the full complement of American subjects: aging, race, loss, faith, marriage, redemption--the tumult of the world we live in.

With his trademark candor and brimming wit, Richard Ford brings Bascombe fully back, in all his imperfect glory, showcasing the maturity and brilliance of a great writer working at the top of his talents.

Ford, Richard

Richard Ford is the author of The Sportswriter; Independence Day, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award; The Lay of the Land; and the New York Times bestseller Canada. His short story collections include the bestseller Let Me Be Frank With You, Sorry for Your Trouble, Rock Springs and A Multitude of Sins, which contain many widely anthologized stories. He lives in New Orleans with his wife Kristina Ford.