Michael Knight – författare

A New York Times Editors' Choice short story collection hailed as "a fresh masterpiece of Southern fiction . . . touching, haunting and brilliant" (Dallas News).Long considered a master of the form and an essential voice in American fiction, Michael Knight delivers a "deft and wonderful, wholly original" collection of interlinked stories set among the members of a Mobile, Alabama family in the years preceding a devastating hurricane (The New York Times Book Review).Grappling with dramas both epic and personal, from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the "unspeakable misgivings of contentment," Eveningland captures with perfect authenticity of place the ways in which ordinary life astounds us with its complexity.A teenaged girl with a taste for violence holds a burglar hostage in her house on New Year's Eve; a middle-aged couple examines the intricacies of their marriage as they prepare to throw a party; and a real estate mogul in the throes of grief buys up all the property on an island only to be accused of madness by his daughters.These stories, infused with humor and pathos, excavate brilliantly the latent desires and motivations that drive life forward in "a luminous collection from a writer of the first rank" (Esquire).

A New York Times Editors' Choice short story collection hailed as "a fresh masterpiece of Southern fiction . . . touching, haunting and brilliant" (Dallas News).Long considered a master of the form and an essential voice in American fiction, Michael Knight delivers a "deft and wonderful, wholly original" collection of interlinked stories set among the members of a Mobile, Alabama family in the years preceding a devastating hurricane (The New York Times Book Review).Grappling with dramas both epic and personal, from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the "unspeakable misgivings of contentment," Eveningland captures with perfect authenticity of place the ways in which ordinary life astounds us with its complexity.A teenaged girl with a taste for violence holds a burglar hostage in her house on New Year's Eve; a middle-aged couple examines the intricacies of their marriage as they prepare to throw a party; and a real estate mogul in the throes of grief buys up all the property on an island only to be accused of madness by his daughters.These stories, infused with humor and pathos, excavate brilliantly the latent desires and motivations that drive life forward in "a luminous collection from a writer of the first rank" (Esquire).

“Ten stories cut like gems from American family life . . . [with] a gracious patina and a drawl of violence.” —Los Angeles Times“A writer of the first rank. . . . [Knight] writes gently and with great gobs of empathy.”—Esquire“Wonderfully humane.” —PlayboyA Los Angeles Times Notable Book, Michael Knight’s stunning debut delivers ten tales of ordinary people seized by extraordinary circumstances as their attempts at human connection result in frustrating false starts and ruinous misunderstandings. Knight expertly unveils fragile family ties, secret compulsions, and the nagging doggedness of love as he taps into our collective human experience to remind us, with unerring, piercing insight, of what it means to be alive. By turns unpredictable and wise, sorrowful and triumphant, Dogfight and Other Stories reveals the transformative power of life’s small struggles.

Simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking, The Holiday Season and its companion piece, Love at the End of the Year are tender ruminations on the nature of family, the power of love, and a particularly complicated time of year.  In The Holiday Season, Jeff, Ted, and Frank Posey are still trying to figure out how to be a family three years after the death of the wife and mother who bound them together. As the year winds to a close and the holidays threaten to unearth the usual myriad of emotions and memories, hairline fractures in the Poseys’ relationships finally splinter and crack over what should be, but never are, simple dilemmas: where to spend the holidays and when it is finally time to break with old traditions. The second novella, Love at the End of the Year, is an intoxicating tale that weighs up love in all its many forms over the course of a single, magical Alabama New Year’s Eve.

After the deaths of his parents, Simon Bell returns to his hometown of Sherwood, Alabama, hoping for a simple, quiet existence. But when he meets Delia Holladay one hot, unmoving summer day, latent needs and desires are awakened. Delia is young, beautiful, and married. As their emotions deepen, the affair slips beyond their control, building to a final reckoning that will leave no one untouched. Divining Rod tells a richly layered tale of adultery, love, and murder, as it follows the arc of one fateful romance to its inevitable and heartbreaking conclusion.

From the award-winning writer of Eveningland and The Typist, Michael Knight, At Briarwood School for Girls is an incisive, witty, beautifully-written novel set at a boarding school in the Virginia countrysideIt’s 1994 and Lenore Littlefield is a junior at Briarwood School for Girls. She plays basketball. She hates her roommate. History is her favorite subject. She has told no one that she’s pregnant. Everything, in other words, is under control.Meanwhile, Disney has announced plans to build a new theme park just up the road, a “Technicolor simulacrum of American History” right in the middle of one of the most history-rich regions of the country. If successful, the development will forever alter the character of Prince William County, VA, and have unforeseeable consequences for the school.When the threat of the theme park begins to intrude on the lives of the faculty and students at Briarwood, secrets will be revealed and unexpected alliances will form. Lenore must decide whom she can trust—will it be a middle-aged history teacher struggling to find purpose in his humdrum life? A lonely basketball coach tasked with directing the school play? A reclusive playwright still grappling with her own Briarwood legacy? Or a teenage ghost equally adept at communicating with the living via telephone or Ouija board?Following a cast of memorable characters as they reckon with questions about fate, history, and the possibility of happiness, At Briarwood School for Girls is a stunning and inventive new work from a master storyteller.

Written with the stunning economy of language for which Michael Knight’s work has always been praised, The Typist is a rich and powerful work of historical fiction that expertly chronicles both the politics of the Pacific theater of World War II, and the personal relationships borne from the tragedies of warfare. When Francis Vancleave (“Van”) joins the army in 1944, he expects his term of service to pass uneventfully. His singular talent—typing ninety-five words a minute—keeps him off the battlefield and in General MacArthur’s busy Tokyo headquarters, where his days are filled with paperwork in triplicate and letters of dictation.But little does Van know that the first year of the occupation will prove far more volatile for him than for the U.S. Army. When he’s bunked with a troubled combat veteran cum-black marketer and recruited to babysit MacArthur’s eight-year-old son, Van is suddenly tangled in the complex—and risky—personal lives of his compatriots. As he brushes shoulders with panpan girls and Communists on the streets of Tokyo, Van struggles to uphold his convictions in the face of unexpected conflict—especially the startling news from his war bride, a revelation that threatens Van with a kind of war wound he never anticipated.

“Ten stories cut like gems from American family life . . . [with] a gracious patina and a drawl of violence.” —Los Angeles Times“A writer of the first rank. . . . [Knight] writes gently and with great gobs of empathy.”—Esquire“Wonderfully humane.” —PlayboyA Los Angeles Times Notable Book, Michael Knight’s stunning debut delivers ten tales of ordinary people seized by extraordinary circumstances as their attempts at human connection result in frustrating false starts and ruinous misunderstandings. Knight expertly unveils fragile family ties, secret compulsions, and the nagging doggedness of love as he taps into our collective human experience to remind us, with unerring, piercing insight, of what it means to be alive. By turns unpredictable and wise, sorrowful and triumphant, Dogfight and Other Stories reveals the transformative power of life’s small struggles.

Death was only the beginning of Macy Vance-Lowry's problems.When a freak library accident ends her life, meticulous librarian Macy awakens to a world of Ecto-Static energy and strict spectral rules. Navigating the 'Density Rule' and 'Static-Lag' is hard enough, but finding herself anchored to the very building that killed her is even worse. That is, until she meets Julian Vane-Sterling.A charismatic ghost from the Roaring Twenties, Julian teaches Macy the art of the 'Ghost Hack'—from haunting autocorrect to the intimate warmth of Aura-Merging. But their peaceful afterlife is under siege. Dr. Aris Halloway, a ruthless scientist, has developed technology to harvest ghosts as batteries, and he has his sights set on the Grandview Public Library.If the library falls, Macy dissipates into nothingness. Alongside a living delivery driver who can see the unseen and her grieving best friend, Macy and Julian must master their ghostly physics to thwart Halloway's machines. In a race against demolition and containment, Macy will discover that some connections are powerful enough to transcend the veil between life and death.

In an era of increasing moral uncertainty and social fragmentation, where can we find a firm foundation for our families and our future?Michael Knight presents a powerful call to return to the ancient paths in The Patriarch's Code: The Laws That Defined a People. This comprehensive theological guide bridges the gap between the ancient Sinai Covenant and the challenges of modern living, revealing that God's statutes were never meant to be discarded, but lived as a roadmap for spiritual restoration.Knight meticulously explores the physical and spiritual laws essential for the descendants of the twelve tribes. From the vital health benefits of biblical dietary laws to the profound significance of God's ordained Holy Days over modern traditions, this book challenges readers to examine the roots of their faith. It is an invitation to step away from the shadows of false religions and the occult to embrace a life of disciplined prayer and joyful obedience.Discover the literal future of the Kingdom of God on earth and learn how family leadership can be transformed by the same code that has guided believers for millennia. This is more than a book on theology; it is a manual for those ready to honor God with their whole lives.

Seth Sterling appreciated the predictable rhythm of his life—the precision of his Cadillac CT5 and the steady miles of the Michigan interstate. But when a jagged tear in reality appears near a rain-slicked exit, his world is permanently shifted out of gear.In the center of a scorched field, Seth discovers a biological super-computer from a world that shouldn't exist: The Key to Axiom. This sentient artifact bonds to him, offering a grandfatherly voice and a color-coded warning system: Green for translation, Blue for temporal travel, and Red for imminent death.Now, Seth is the Last Ring-Bearer, the only thing standing between the cradle of creation and the Archon of Void. The Archon seeks to 'delete' the noise of the multiverse, erasing entire civilizations and histories to return the universe to a silent, perfect nothingness.Hunted by a ruthless chronological auditor across cities made of singing glass and prehistoric versions of Earth, Seth must master a power he never asked for. In a universe of infinite possibilities, he is about to learn that being 'perfect' isn't the goal—being human is. The source code of humanity is at stake, and the countdown to deletion has already begun.

When every screen on Earth flickers to life with a message from an extra-dimensional Architect named Silas, humanity's reality shatters. Silas hasn't come to conquer; he's come to find a surrogate.Evelyn Sterling is the last person who wants to be a god. As a cynical hospice nurse in Lansing, Michigan, she's spent years watching life fade away, leaving her hollowed by grief and nihilism. But when Silas chooses her to carry his 'light'—a fragment of creative power that can rewrite the fundamental laws of physics—Evelyn becomes the most valuable and dangerous person on the planet.Now, she is a target. Director Alistair Crane and his clandestine Aegis task force see Evelyn not as a savior, but as a rogue biological asset to be weaponized. As a global manhunt closes in, Evelyn must rely on a former nun and a rogue journalist to help her navigate a world terrified of her existence.With her own jaded emotions threatening to destabilize the cosmic energy she carries, Evelyn must decide: Is human mercy strong enough to hold back the tide of a lonely creator's experiment? The first element of creation is in her hands, and the cost of failure is the end of humanity itself.

One strike changed everything.Seth Knight was just an ordinary construction worker in Portland, Michigan, until a bolt of blue lightning from the depths of space and time tore through the sky. He didn't die. He transformed. Now, with eyes that glow electric blue and the power to heal the dying, Seth has become a local hero—and a primary target for a government that fears what it cannot control.As Agent Garrett Vance and the Exotic Threat Mitigation task force close in, Seth must rely on a mismatched team of allies: his loyal friend Steve, a brilliant engineer named Jack, a meticulous accountant named Bre, and Anessa Cole, a cynical professional hacker who captures Seth's heart. But the government is the least of their worries.The lightning wasn't a natural disaster; it was a temporal rift. Commander Vahn Krell, an alien scout from a dying star system, is coming to Earth to reclaim the energy surging through Seth's veins. As Seth's own consciousness begins to merge with a cosmic data-structure, he must master his god-like abilities before he loses his humanity. Between federal harassment and an impending extraterrestrial invasion, Seth must decide if he is a man, a weapon, or the only conduit standing between Earth and total annihilation.

Solara is not a ghost, but she is haunted by the light of a dead world. After escaping the blue giant star of Xylar-9, she crashes into the Mojave Desert, only to discover that Earth's yellow sun is far more than a source of warmth—it is a volatile fuel. On this planet, she is a living battery, her skin tracing lines of molten gold as she absorbs radiation faster than her body can process.While the desert locals see a fallen star, the government sees a weapon of mass destruction. Director Aris Thorne-Pryce and his thermal-hunting mercenaries are closing in, desperate to cage the energy Solara can barely contain. Her only ally is Marcus, a weary mechanic with a hidden past, who knows that a weapon never gets to choose where it lands.As her thermal bloom intensifies, Solara must master the fire in her veins or risk an atmospheric collapse that will incinerate her new home. From the rusted iron canyons of the badlands to the brink of a cosmic first contact, The Sun Walker is an explosive journey about the burden of power and the courage to remain human in the face of divinity. Every sunrise brings her closer to critical mass. Every touch is a risk. And the world she wants to save is the one she was destined to consume.

This new collection from Michael Knight—PEN/Hemingway citation recipient and B&N Discover Award finalist whom Esquire praises as “a writer of the first rank”—thrills and pierces with stories of men and women of breathtaking conviction, pathos, and humor.The stories in Goodnight, Nobody demonstrate Michael Knights’ exquisite and “rare power to make a setting breathe, to invest it with a vitality that seems as authentic and intense as the pulsebeats of his characters.” (The New York Times Book Review) This luminous collection astutely explores rediscovered love, reconciliation, and peace amid the trials of everyday life.The denizens of Goodnight, Nobody are, like so many of us, bewildered by the circumstances in which they find themselves. The unexpected twists of their lives—rendered with expert humor and pathos in Knight’s dark-light style—test the limits of the personalities they have known as their own.In “Birdland,” published in The New Yorker, a beautiful Northerner visits a small Alabama town to research the bizarre migration habits of a flock of African parrots from Rhode Island. “Feeling Lucky” finds a desperate man kidnapping his own daughter. In the most daring and haunting of these stories, “Killing Stonewall Jackson,” which was published in Story, a hardened band of Confederate soldiers resorts to surprising measures to survive on the battlefield. “The End of Everything,” published in GQ, weaves together a tender love story and an edge-of-your-seat urban legend, while “The Mesmerist,” published in Esquire, is an eerie fairy tale about a man who hypnotizes a stranger and makes her his wife. In “Keeper of Secrets, Teller of Lies,” published in Virginia Quarterly Review, a man causes more havoc the harder he tries to help a young mother and her son. In “Mitchell’s Girls,” a stay-at-home dad battles the disrespect of youth and a paralyzing bad back. “Ellen’s Book” hilariously describes the yearning a man feels for his estranged wife. In “Blackout,” a suburban neighborhood’s pent-up jealousies and fears explode under the cover of darkness.Knight’s sensibility is potent and unique, stirring tenderness in equal parts with violence. While the settings, chronologies, and characters vary widely throughout the collection, they remain bound by Knight’s simple, elegant prose, his graceful sense of humor, and an unfailing empathy with the self-destructed.

Written with the stunning economy of language for which Michael Knight's work has always been praised, The Typist is a rich and powerful work of historical fiction that expertly chronicles both the politics of the Pacific theater of World War II, and the personal relationships borne from the tragedies of warfare. When Francis Vancleave ("Van") joins the army in 1944, he expects his term of service to pass uneventfully. His singular talent-typing ninety-five words a minute-keeps him off the battlefield and in General MacArthur's busy Tokyo headquarters, where his days are filled with paperwork in triplicate and letters of dictation. But little does Van know that the first year of the occupation will prove far more volatile for him than for the U.S. Army. When he's bunked with a troubled combat veteran-cum-black marketer and recruited to babysit MacArthur's eight-year-old son, Van is suddenly tangled in the complex-and risky-personal lives of his compatriots.As he brushes shoulders with panpan girls and Communists on the streets of Tokyo, Van struggles to uphold his convictions in the face of unexpected conflict-especially the startling news from his war bride, a revelation that threatens Van with a kind of war wound he never anticipated.