In Hotly in Pursuit of the Real, the beloved bestselling novelist Ron Hansen opens the doors of his writing studio to share with us his passions for history, scandal, theology, Jesuits, the American West, and golf (which he plays even in bad weather). If Hansen's novels explore people very different from himself--from a stigmatic nun to a Victorian poet to Billy the Kid, and even Hitler's niece--the meditations in this book do the opposite, allowing us to glimpse the wellsprings of his ima...

Once again, acclaimed novelist Ron Hansen demonstrates his masterful versatility as a writer, with Isn't It Romantic?, a screwball comedy in the tradition of filmmaker Preston Sturges. In this charming entertainment, mistaken identities, botched schemes, and hilarious misunderstandings all play a part as Parisian sophistication collides with the affability and simple pleasures of the Great Plains.Touring America was Natalie's idea. But she had not planned on being accompan...

Stories of the heartland by the National Book Award finalist and author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Nebraska captures a rowdy, changing America. Written with wit and brawny lyricism, in voices ranging from hip to tender, the stories gathered here are as diverse and expansive as the country they celebrate…References to America's heartland abound throughout the book and serve as a central metaphor for what's close ...

With Exiles, Ron Hansen tells the story of a notorious shipwreck that prompted Gerard Manley Hopkins to break years of "elected silence" with an outpouring of dazzling poetry.In December 1875 the steamship Deutschland left Bremen, bound for England and then America. On board were five young nuns who, exiled by Bismarck's laws against Catholic religious orders, were going to begin their lives anew in Missouri. Early one morning, the ship ran aground in the Thames an...

Is God for real? Is there any meaning to life? These are the questions that urged a nine-year-old to start a quest that has lasted over sixty-nine years. The journey goes from coast to coast and from border to border.The events run the gamut of the last half of the previous century: racial prejudice, school integration, Vietnam debates, and the place of Christianity in our sociopolitical society.The accounts describe facing violence without fear, and finding solutions to co...

The Journey Continues: Ministry Facing Challenge and Change will travel though the mountain and plains states. The quest for meaning that began in Journey to God will be expanded through the challenges and changes of raising a family, facing the ever changing expectations of ministers, church, and faith in God.Our young family is now a family with teenagers, driver licenses, cars, and dating. The one-salaried family becomes a two-salaried family with positive and negative reactions...

In this retelling of one of the great classic tales of the American West, James comes across as a complex character, a new age type with an interest in parapsychology and alternative medicine, a farmer, a family man and a stone-cold killer.

Aged 65, Emmett Dalton is the last survivor of the legendary Dalton gang. Now he lives off his memories in Hollywood. Combining fact and fiction, Ron Hansen depicts the outlaw past of the Daltons and the West they travelled. The Dalton brothers turn from being peace officers in the Indian territories to a life of rustling. When their leader, Bob, meets Eugenia Moore, a schoolteacher who begins to plan their robberies, they become the most notorious outlaws of their time.As their ra...

Deep Down Things: Essays on Catholic Culture explores common threads that characterize Catholicism. The contributors look successively at: Catholic culture and everyday life of the parish and of work, at Catholic culture and the imaginative life of poets and fiction writers, and at Catholic culture and postmodern life where individual conscience, skepticism, and relativism challenge Church authority and faith itself. They do so while looking for foundational components that persist and com...

One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling novels of 1991, Mariette in Ecstasy inspires even the most discriminating listener to some degree of reverence. This captivating story of faith and divine madness may move you to examine your own belief system. Since the tender age of four, Mariette Baptiste has had visions of her Savior. Now, at 17, she is entering the convent to dedicate her life to Him. At first, she is welcomed and admired. Then she begins to bleed from stigmata, and th...

“Recalls the literature of Americana by John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, Willa Cather, and Hamlin Garland . . . Hansen has broadened our perception of the West in much the same way as the best historians . . . and proven himself one of our finest stylists of American historical fiction.” —Christian Science MonitorBestselling author Ron Hansen recreates the real West with his imaginative telling of the life of the most famous outla...

Ron Hansen has won an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for his rich writing and poetic style. Atticus begins in the vein of a contemporary western. As it unfolds, it includes an intriguing murder mystery and a dramatic parable of the prodigal son. For years, prosperous Colorado rancher Atticus Cody has tried to understand his rootless son, Scott, who is now living a marginal life in Mexico. When he learns that Scott is dead, apparently by suic...