Kevin Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the US Army in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, where he was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. He currently lives in Florence, where his wife studies fashion. www.kevincpowers.com
Extraordinary . . . beautifully accomplished. The mark of an artist of the first order . . . a must-read book. - JOHN BURNSIDE, GUARDIAN A masterpiece ... a classic. - THE TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR A stunning achievement - visceral [and] poignant. - SUNDAY TIMES 'Remarkable for its intensity of both feeling and expression. In this book about death, every line is a defiant assertion of the power of beauty to revivify, whether beauty shows itself in nature or (later) in art. - HILARY MANTEL, GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR The best book I have read this year - IRISH TIMES A wonderful, powerful novel that moves and terrifies. - INDEPENDENT Harrowing, inexplicably beautiful, and utterly, urgently necessary. - ANN PATCHETT, Orange Prizewinning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder A stunning read . . . beautiful [and] devastating. - SIMON MAYO, BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB