Published to coincide with Richard Ford's debut hardback for Bloomsbury, The Lay of the Land Runner up for the Ernest Hemingway Award 1976 By the internationally renowned winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction

'This is quality writing in the highest American tradition of Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck ... The dialogue is immaculate. The story-telling and plotting are confident and rich in texture. Above all, the sense of atmosphere, mood, time and place has a resonance that sings in the head and stimulates every sense' The Times 'A modern book of great power. Ford writes with a stark brilliance that imprints descriptions of the land and people deeply into one's consciousness' Daily Telegraph 'A tour de force' Daily Telegraph 'Its power is mysterious and unmistakable ... extraordinary' Newsweek

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1944. He has published five novels and three collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, Wildlife, A Multitude of Sins and most recently The Lay of the Land. Independence Day was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.