Books
We Burn Daylight
National Bestseller
The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Winner of the Jesse Jones Award for Best Novel of the Year
Winner of the WLT’s Best Fiction of the Year
“A cause for celebration…Literature of the highest order . . . the music of it all is just so damn seductive. . . A darkly dazzling pilgrimage of violent delights, and violent ends.”—The New York Times
“A heartfelt yet unsparing read, one that manages to return to the victims of the Branch Davidian cult their humanity, making us see more of them than their misdeeds.”—The Boston Globe
“A magnificent portrait of how even as the rivets of our republic are popping loose, plumes of beauty still rise from the soil upon which so much wrong continues to repeat.”—Rick Bass, author of For a Little While and Why I Came West
“Who decides what we believe? Johnston allows curious onlookers inside the compound and the hearts of Waco in a perfect marriage of history and art.”—Booklist, starred review
“Symphonic and suspenseful.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March
“A colossal achievement of We Burn Daylight is that it demands to be read in a breathless rush, and afterward, demands deepest and most private reflection.”—Megha Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning
Based on the true events that unfolded thirty years ago during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight is an unforgettable love story, a heart-pounding literary page turner, and a profound exploration of faith, family, and what it means to truly be saved.
Remember Me Like This
Incisive, haunting, and beautifully written, Bret Anthony Johnston’s debut novel lays bare a family’s hope and heartbreak in the aftermath of a devastating crime. Remember Me Like This explores the nature of love and forgiveness when a kidnapped son is returned home.
“It is as a writer that I admire the architecture of Remember Me Like This, the novel’s flawless storytelling. It is as the father of three sons that I vouch for the psychological authenticity of this depiction of any parent’s worst fears. Emotionally, I am with this family as they try to move ahead—embracing ‘the half-known and desperate history’ that they share. I love this novel.”
– John Irving
Corpus Christi: Stories
From acclaimed and award-winning writer Bret Anthony Johnston comes an assured and intensely moving debut collection set in the eye of life’s storms. In Corpus Christi, Texas - a town often hit by hurricanes - parents, children, and lovers come together and fall apart, bonded and battered by memories of loss that they feel as acutely as physical pain.
“An auspicious debut. Johnston’s exquisitely drawn men and women are riders on the storm, coping with an iffy emotional landscape that mirrors Corpus Christi’s own, where the past is too easily washed away and the ocean has no memory. Stunning and complex.”
– Los Angeles Times Book Review
Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer
For fans of Natalie Goldberg and Anne Lamott, an irresistible, interactive writing book from the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, with 65 contributions from acclaimed authors and teachers.