MARTYRS AND HOLYMEN

With MARTYRS AND HOLYMEN, Larry Fondation continues to record gritty stories of city life. In his fifth book of "L.A. Stories," he has expanded the scope to include the experiences of Angeleno soldiers on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and also returning home. When Fallujah is transplanted to Southern California, "survival" can take many meanings, all of them translating into four letter words. Fondation details the scars left by that which does not kill us, and tests the notion that we really are left stronger by the experience.

Larry Fondation is the author of 'Angry Nights' and 'Fish, Soap and Bonds', and of 'Common Criminals', 'Unintended Consequences' and 'Martyrs and Holymen', all three are collections of short stories. His fiction focuses on the Los Angeles underbelly. His three most recent books feature collaborations with London-based artist Kate Ruth.

Fondation has lived in LA since the 1980s, and has worked for nearly 20 years as an organizer in South Los Angeles, Compton and East LA. His first three books are being published in France by Fayard. The first, Angry Nights (FC2 National Fiction Competition Winner, 1994), translated as Sur Les Nerfs (“On the Edge”), appeared in French in January 2012. It was nominated for the 2013 Prix SNCF du Polar. The second, Criminels Ordinaires (Fayard), was published in February 2013. Fondation is a recipient of a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship in Fiction Writing.