Rene Steinke is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Fires and Holy Skirts, which was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award. She is the director of the MFA program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Steinke lives in Brooklyn.
One of Mashable's Top 24 Summer Books of 2014
"Masterfully observed . . . The characters' attempts to grapple
with the legacy of this destruction form the tender and harrowing
heart of the story. . . . This is a place you live in as you
read."—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Texas is a huge, complicated state, and it's sometimes a difficult
one for authors to get right. Not so for Rene Steinke,
whose Friendswood does a near-perfect job capturing the
feel not just of the titular city but of southeast Texas as a
whole. . . . One of the most interesting novels to be set in the
Lone Star State in quite a while.”—NPR, Great Reads of 2014
"Friendswood, the lyrical new novel by National Book Award Finalist
René Steinke, is the kind of 300-plus-page book that devours you in
a couple of afternoons. The prose is nimble but sure-footed, the
narrative suspenseful, and the characters universally
recognizable—regardless of your familiarity with the small-town
Texas paradigm of church, high school football, and a stream of
background music from such Southern songwriting eminences as Porter
Wagoner, George Jones, and Patsy Cline. . . . Friendswood is a rare
blend of beautiful, suspenseful, and seemingly artless prose—you
may stay up past bedtime to find out how everything turns out—but
also of optimism: hope minus any form of proselytization. Like the
country singers who are quietly woven throughout the narrative,
shrugging off suffering through song, Friendswood offers an
unassuming remedy for the troubles we humans always seem to find
ourselves in: love thy neighbor. Simple right? Doesn’t hurt to be
reminded of it. And it’s also one hell of a read."—The Literary
Review
“The characters feel very real . . . A moving exploration of
community and loss.”—Dallas Morning News
“Spectacular . . . Like a painter, Steinke draws stunning scenes of
small town Texas life: Ranch houses. Friday night football games.
Church fundraisers. Like Sherwood, Ohio or Sinclair Lewis’s Main
Street, Friendswood is also a vision of modern American life . . .
Ultimately a story about hope and American character . . . one of
the best books of the summer.”—Patrik Henry Bass, NY1
"Years after an oil refinery’s toxic chemicals have caused death
and illness among the residents of a fictional Texas hamlet, the
affected families struggle to move on. Then a real estate
tycoon lobbies to rebuild homes on the abandoned site, and the
neighbors clash over money, justice, and the truth about this
mysterious tract of land."—Woman's Day
"The topics in Rene Steinke's new novel, Friendswood may be heavy .
. . but you'll relate easily to the characters. . . . Long after
you finish the book, you'll still wonder how the people in in are
doing."—Redbook
"The big events that rock this Texas community are nothing compared
with what happens behind closed doors."—Cosmopolitan
"A sharp, observant novel about the hard realities of challenging
the status quo."—Kirkus
“This is a book of rare power, tempered by equally rare grace.
Steinke's sense of this small Texas town, with its explosive and
interconnected lives and deaths, is absolutely masterful. The
reader is pulled into the story immediately, emotionally, morally,
completely. What's more, it's a page-turner of the most explosive
quality. Steinke torques the plot tighter and tighter, until the
suspense is nearly unbearable—yet never loses sight of her
character's humanity, nor sacrifices a word of her beautiful prose.
This is work by an author operating at the peak of her authority,
to be sure."—Elizabeth Gilbert
"A compassionate and compelling novel that explores the points of
view of multiple people living in a run-over small town where
everyone is as bound to the land around them as they are bound to
each other, no matter how much they wish otherwise. The past
is never quite past, and the mystery of how it all fits together is
very seductive. Steinke gives us a rich and poignant story of human
loneliness rendered through evocative, poetic and beautiful
prose.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia
“I loved this book for many reasons, not least its hardscrabble,
plaintive tone and atmosphere of looming suspense. All of America
is here. This is the one we've been waiting for.”—Wesley Stace,
author of Wonderkid
“René Steinke’s Friendswood is as arresting, haunting, and
heartbreaking as contemporary narrative comes. With lyrical and
emotional depth, with an empathy only the greatest writers possess,
Steinke shines a light into the shadows of the American spirit and
doesn't for a moment avert her gaze.”—David Grand, author of Louse
and Mount Terminus
Praise for Friendswood
“Masterfully observed.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“Steinke’s sensitive exploration of tangled human connections
reminds us that love and friendship will go a long way toward
seeing us through our trials.” —Los Angeles Times
“Spectacular . . . Like a painter, Steinke draws stunning scenes of
small town Texas life: Ranch houses. Friday night football games.
Church fundraisers. Like Sherwood, Ohio , or Sinclair Lewis’s Main
Street, Friendswood is also a vision of modern American life.”
—Patrik Henry Bass, NY1
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