THE OTHER JOSEPH

Gripping novel about a man's quest to rise above his mistakes.

The Other Joseph is narrated by thirty-year-old Luisiana native, convicted felon, and offshore oilrig worker Roy Joseph. Haunted by the disappearance of his brother in the first Gulf War, the tragic death of his parents, and the sin from his past that has branded him, Roy has shut himself off from the world, managing to live a life of quiet seclusion, until the day he is contacted by a teenage girl claiming to be his lost brother's biological daughter. After years of self-imposed exile, Roy finds himself in San Francisco, beset by mysteries both known and unknown as he struggles to form some bond with the girl, as well as to alter the course of his unhappy and isolated life. Skip Horack is a former Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he was also a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His short story collection The Southern Cross won the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference 2008 Bakeless Fiction Prize. His novel The Eden Hunter was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. His work has also appeared in Oxford American, the Southern Review, Narrative, Epoch, and other noteworthy literary journals and magazines. A native of Louisiana and a graduate of Florida State University, he is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Auburn University.