He lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with his wife, dancer/choreographer Fontaine Dollas, and their three children. He teaches in Emerson College's MFA in writing program, and at Tufts University. He was one of three finalists for the 1994 Prix de Rome given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction.Īndre Dubus III is the son of Andre Dubus, a widely recognized master of short fiction who died in 1999. It has also been cited in The One Hundred Most Distinguished Stories of 1993 and The Best American Short Stories of 1994. His characters were inspired by two people whose predicaments had stuck in his mind for years: a woman he read about in the newspaper who was wrongly evicted from her house and forced to live in her car, and a college friend's father, who had been a colonel in the Iranian air force and could only find menial jobs after fleeing to the United States.ĭubus's work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the 1985 National Magazine Award for Fiction. Much of the book was written in his car, which he often parked at a local cemetery in search of quiet and solitude. For the next few years, he taught and did odd jobs as a carpenter while working on House of Sand and Fog. His first book, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, was published in 1989, followed in 1993 by his first novel, Bluesman.
literary thriller.” - The Washington Post Book Worldīefore finding his calling as a writer, Andre Dubus III worked for brief stints as a bounty hunter, private investigator, carpenter, bartender, actor, and teacher. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog is a devastating exploration of the American Dream gone awry. As Kathy and Lester become obsessed with seeking justice by whatever means possible, the three characters converge on an explosive collision course. In doing so, she enlists the help of Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who has fallen precipitously in love with her. A recovering alcoholic and addict, Kathy is desperate to regain her only tie to stability- her home. But the house has been auctioned because of a bureaucratic error, and Behrani’s fragile plans are jeopardized when Kathy Nicolo, the owner of the house, begins to protest the sale. Now, willing to risk the modest remainder of his fortune to restore his family’s dignity, he buys a small house at a county auction, planning to sell it again for three or four times what he paid. Having fled the country with his family, he works by day spearing trash on California highways and by night as a clerk in a convenience store while deceiving his family into believing that he has a loftier job. It is an American tragedy, and a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today.Ĭolonel Massoud Amir Behrani was once a powerful and respected officer in the Shah of Iran’s air force. House of Sand and Fog is a narrative triumph in which a traditional immigrant success story and a modern love story are turned upside down with brutal, heartrending consequences. But the house's former owner, a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck, doesn't see it that way, nor does her lover, a married cop driven to extremes to win her love and get her house back. When an attractive bungalow comes available on county auction for a fraction of its value, he sees a great opportunity for himself, his wife, and his children. On a road crew in California, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force under the Shah yearns to restore his family's dignity. And a small house will seem like the most important piece of territory in the world.
In this page-turning, breathtaking novel, the characters will walk off the page and into your life. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus Tense with suspense from the first line, this is one of the great American realist novels.
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