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Thomas Dyja is the author of Play for a Kingdom, which was was named one of the best novels of 1998 by Library Journal. He has been a guest on CNN, FOX News, and National Public Radio, and has lectured on the Civil War. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
Photo © Marion Ettlinger
Meet John Trow
Steven Armour, a disaffected man in his forties, is at a crossroads: his marriage has fizzled, his career is at a standstill, and he is obsessed by the man he might have become if only he had married the woman who still haunts him. But life takes an unexpected turn for Steven when, on a whim, he joins a local group of Civil War re-enactors. Assigned to immerse himself in the character of Private John Trow, Steven soon finds himself completely identifying with Trow's life and consumed by his passion for a fellow re-enactor, Polly Kellogg. Deft and often absurdly comical, Meet John Trow is the haunting tale of a man who risks losing his future to satisfy the temptations of the past.
Thomas Dyja's Summer Reading List
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
by Simon Winchester
I remember seeing Krakatoa, East of Java when I was young and not believing that an event so huge could have actually taken place, so I'm relying on Winchester to set me straight.
Always Wear Joy
by Susan Fales-Hill
A memoir of growing up biracial among the great generation of African-American divas, including the author's mother, Josephine Premice. Susan Fales-Hill was a producer of the Cosby Show and A Different World, and she's an enormously sharp and entertaining writer.
Good Faith
by Jane Smiley
I will read anything Jane Smiley writes, down to her grocery lists if she'd ever share
them with me. She's an enormous inspiration to me as a novelist in how she refuses to fall into a certain type of fiction.
Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
by David Fromkin
The definitive history of the partitioning of the Middle East in the early 20th century. I've been meaning to read it for a long time, but for obvious reasons, the moment is now.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
by Chuck Barris
Who cares if it's true or not? The Gong Show was a twisted masterpiece in the great tradition of mind-bending conceptual comedy, from Ernie Kovacs to Second City to Andy Kaufman and this book is a part of that.
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Summer Reading Lists
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