Richard Wiley Publishes New Novel (Korea)

Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69) is the author of several novels including Soldiers in Hiding, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and Ahmed’s Revenge, winner of Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award. He is professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and now lives in Tacoma, Washington.

His new book–just published–is entitled Bob Stevenson and has just been published by Bellevue Literary Press.

It is the story of a Dr. Ruby Okada who meets a charming man with a Scottish accent in the elevator of her psychiatric hospital. Unaware that he is an escaping patient, she falls under his spell, and her life and his are changed forever by the time they get to the street.

Who is the mysterious man? Is he Archie B. Billingsly, suffering from dissociative identity disorder and subject to brilliant flights of fancy and bizarre, violent fits? Or is he the reincarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson, back to haunt New York as Long John Silver and Mr. Edward Hyde? Her career compromised, Ruby soon learns that her future and that of her unborn child depend on finding the key to his identity.

With compelling psychological descriptions and terrifying, ineffable transformations, Bob Stevenson is an ingenious tale featuring a quirky cast of characters drawn together by mutual fascination, need, and finally, love.

Caryl Phillips, author of A Distant Shore and The Lost Child, writes, “A witty, roller-coaster ride of uncertain identity set against the gritty certainties of New York City. In compelling, unadored rose, RichardWiley gives us a bewitching and ultimately moving tale.”

Richard will be reading this fall on:

October 21st – at Elliott Bay Book Company

October 26th – at Black Mountain Institute
UNLV Greenspun Hall Auditorium

November 12th at BookCourt

November 15th at Tacoma Public Library
Tacoma Public Library/Wheelock Branch