World's Edge: A Mosaic Novel - by James Sallis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A compelling call for compassion and resilience in the maw of social dissolution from literary legend James Sallis, master of many genres and Nebula, Edgar, and Shamus-nominated author of Drive

All I wanted was for my life, when you picked it up in your hands, to have some weight to it.

In a not-so-distant future the United States has fragmented, balkanizing into unstable provinces often at war with one another, and Americans, their great promise not so much lost as forfeited, are encountering the terrors and devastation so much of the world daily lives with. Throughout a land littered with refugees, ruins, orphaned children, soldiers, militia, and fugitives, people go on about their daily lives as best they can.

The five linked stories of World's Edge track the false starts and stall-outs of a nation and civilization trying to rise again, to rebuild, and of individuals caught up in that rebirthing. As ever, the only true history lies in the story of individual lives, in the old rag and bone shop of our hearts.

Review Quotes

Praise for James Sallis

"The power of simplicity and the musical ring of truth as only Sallis can deliver it--as he has done bravely, consistently, for the last few decades."
--Los Angeles Times

"Then there's James Sallis--he's right up there, one of the best. It is quite possible that speaking of Jim Sallis in the same tone as Poe and Dostoevsky is not overblowing on my part."
--Harlan Ellison

"James Sallis is one of our greatest living crime writers . . . Try to get his words, his stories, his people out of your head. Just try."
--Laura Lippman, author of Lady in the Lake

"Sallis is a sure hand--characters and prose, of course, dialogue, too, but he is also a subtle weaver of plot, with the perfect level of push. His descriptions evoke a place more real than mere realism could render, and his people speak and sweat and live and die and it's all a great pleasure."
--Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

"One of the most enjoyable and most important writers working today, James Sallis has quietly revolutionized an entire genre of literature."
--Sara Gran, author of Come Closer

About the Author

James Sallis has published eighteen novels, including Drive, which was made into a now-iconic film, and the six-volume Lew Griffin series. He is a recipient of the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, the Deutsche Krimipreis, and the Brigada 21 in Spain, as well as Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. His biography of Chester Himes was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and he has been shortlisted for the Anthony, Nebula, Edgar, Shamus, and Gold Dagger Awards.