Kimberling, B: Snapper

Brian Kimberling is a native of Indiana and a graduate of Indiana University. In the mid-nineties he was a research assistant for a major study of Indiana songbirds, an experience central to his first book. Since then he has lived and worked `mostly as a TEFL teacher` in the Czech Republic, Mexico, Turkey and England, where he lives now. He began writing his first book on the Bath Spa Creative Writing MA in 2009, and was awarded the first annual Janklow & Nesbit Prize for the best manuscript to emerge from the course. He lives in Bath with his wife and son.

"Brian Kimberling's debut novel, "Snapper", captures the high lonesome beauty of a songbird's canorous call. Nathan Lochmueller, an amateur ornithologist and future falconer, adventures through the Indiana wilds heartsick with Yeatsian love but full of good humor and stumbling grace. As Nathan searches for starlings, he teaches us all to care more deeply about the wonders and dangers of the natural world. "Snapper" is a brilliant field study, a soulful guide to the humble glories and enduring legacies of the Great Midwest. Brian Kimberling is a writer of serious wit and wisdom." --Amber Dermont, author of "The Starboard Sea" and "Damage Control""Brian Kimberling is an amazingly talented and wise writer. "Snapper" is filled with sly humor and uncommon grace and some of the most memorable characters to appear in fiction in recent years."--Donald Ray Pollock, author of "The Devil All the Time""[A] catchy, well-written debut novel. . . . [An] accomplished, ironic Midwest coming-of-age tale." --"Publishers Weekly""In those awkward, drifting, post-college years, when many young men find themselves working behind a counter, Nathan Lochmueller learns he has a gift for tracking songbirds. . . . Told with precise and memorable prose in beautifully rendered, time-shifted vignettes, "Snapper "richly evokes the emotions of coming to adulthood. Nathan's fascination with the physical world and with living an authentic and meaningful life, his disdain for jingoistic environmentalism, and his struggle to find balance between the cloistered liberalism of college towns and the conservatism of small towns are thoughtfully explored. All this and it's funny, too. . . . Kimberling writes gracefully about absurdity, showing a rich feeling for the whole range of human tragicomedy. A delightful debut."--"Booklist", starred review