The Sweet Hereafter

When fourteen children from the small town of Sam Dent are lost in a tragic accident, its citizens are confronted with one of life’s most difficult and disturbing questions: When the worst happens, whom do you blame, and how do you cope? Masterfully written, it is a large-hearted novel that brings to life a cast of unforgettable small-town characters and illuminates the mysteries and realities of love as well as grief.

The Sweet Hereafter was released as a major motion picture by Atom Egoyan in 1997 and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Egoyan also received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay that year.

Russell Banks is the author of thirteen works of fiction. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his work, including the O. Henry and the Best American Short Story Awards, John Dos Passos Prize and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the President of the International Parliament of Writers, following Wole Soyinka and Salman Rushdie. He lives in upstate New York.