Winner of the 1989 National Book Award A classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm,Spartinais the lyrical and compassionate story of Dick Pierce, a commercial fisherman along the shores of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. A kind, sensitive, family man, he is also prone to irascible outbursts against the people he must work for, now that he can no longer make his living from the sea. Pierce's one great passion, a fifty-foot fishing boat calledSpartina, lies unfinished in his back yard.  Determined to get the funds he needs to buy her engine, he finds himself taking a foolish, dangerous risk.  But his real test comes when he must weather a storm at sea in order to keep his dream alive.  Moving and poetic,Spartinais a masterly story of one man's ongoing struggle to find his place in the world. From the Trade Paperback edition. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

A Rhode Island fisherman grows taciturn and restless in his 40s, until the unexpected occurs: an affair with a woman who has the power to draw out and challenge her lover. ``Casey uses a simple, unadorned narrative style to create an evocative character study,'' wrote PW. This novel won the 1989 National Book Award. (July) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Rhode Island fisherman Dick Pierce's neighbors are mostly rich city people vacationing in luxury condos on land his family once owned. Pierce himself is chronically broke, and lately he has taken to poaching clams on state land in order to finance the Spartina , a 50-foot fishing boat he is building in a last-ditch effort to become his own boss. Elsie Buttrick, an officer of the Department of Natural Resources, suspects that Pierce is the poaching culprit, but in the course of her investigation they end up in bed together--something that Pierce has trouble concealing from his wife and kids. Casey's new novel, another addition to the recently revived genre of blue-collar fiction, reminds us that there is more to Rhode Island than the mansions of Newport. A well-crafted book that should have a strong regional appeal.-- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch . Lib., Los Angeles From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

John Casey was born in 1939 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Educated at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the University of Iowa, Casey is a Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Casey's novel Spartina, a classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm, won the National Book Award in 1989. In his second novel, The Half-life of Happiness, published in March 1998, Casey takes the reader on a journey to Charlottesville, where a successful forty-something lawyer has to deal with the breakup of his marriage amidst a run for a seat in Congress.

Casey lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.