Jacob's Well

Stephen Harrigan is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including the award-winning novels The Gates of the Alamo and Remember Ben Clayton, the critically acclaimed essay collection The Eye of the Mammoth, and Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. He lives in Austin, Texas, where he is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a faculty fellow at the University of Texas's Michener Center for Writers.

Stephen Harrigan makes every page of his book seem new . . . When Sam, Libby, and Rick make their climactic dive into the well’s nether passages, the suspense functions on several levels at once. Will they come out alive? How is the triangle going to resolve itself? Can the novelist succeed in fusing his several strands of plot and character with a single blaze of action?My conscience won’t let me answer the first two questions in the presence of anyone inclined to read the book, but I have no qualms about the third: yes, indeed. (Washington Post) The suspense is as pressurized as the atmosphere 150 feet below the surface. Jacob’s Well delivers satisfaction from beginning to end. The action sequences are authentic and taut. The love affairs and the nuances of emotion between the three protagonists ring painfully true. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat) Jacob’s Well is one of the finest novels to be written in Texas in the last ten years. Exquisitely painful at times, Stephen Harrigan’s second novel is also deeply humane-a thoughtful and thought-provoking story of how three individuals make peace with themselves, each other, and the world around them. (San Antonio Express-News) A significant work by an author whose talents, like the depths of Jacob’s Well itself, seem limitless. (United Press International) An emotionally resonant novel. (Newsweek) At times deeply moving and wise, this novel reveals Harrigan’s increasing maturity as a novelist. (Publishers Weekly)

• Author’s NoteChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32Afterword