Daniel Wallace Books In Order

Novels

  1. Big Fish (1998)
  2. Ray in Reverse (2000)
  3. The Watermelon King (2002)
  4. Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (2007)
  5. The Kings and Queens of Roam (2013)
  6. Extraordinary Adventures (2017)

Non fiction

  1. Don’t Quit Your Day Job (2010)

Novels Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Daniel Wallace Books Overview

Big Fish

FIRST ANNUAL REPS’ CHOICE. Edward Bloom is dying, and his son William still doesn’t know him. He knows some things about his father: Edward never missed school, even in the worst snowstorms. He could outrun anybody. He was generous. He had a way with animals. He knew every good joke ever told. He was a great salesman. A visionary. He saved lives. He knew how to court and win a woman. He was a good friend. He was an adulterer. These things William knows. But William realizes he still doesn’t know his father: how he thinks, what is important to him or who he really is. Sitting by his father’s deathbed, William tries to understand the elusive Edward Bloom, the man quickly slipping from his grasp who is more interested in evading his son’s questions than in answering them. In fact, Edward is most interested in running through his repertoire of classic jokes. This is his final performance, he’s fading fast, and he’s milking those last moments for all they’re worth. Who can blame him for that? And so, as the son grows increasingly desperate to know the man about to step over permanently to the other side, he begins to make up stories. In a wonderful sleight of hand, William recreates his father’s life in heroic proportions. William reconstructs Edward’s life from beginning to end through a series of tales, legends, and myths; in doing so, he finds a way to understand his father’s great feats and great failings, and he finds a way to say good bye. With a mixture of humor and pathos, Big Fish teaches us about the transformative powers of joke telling and storytelling, and one magical way of moving from life to death. Advance praise for Big Fish: ‘A talented and fascinating writer. Daniel Wallace has created a jewel in Big Fish.’ Winston Groom, author of FORREST GUMP; ‘Big Fish is going to make a very big splash! It’s got everything: heart, wonderful writing, and accessibility…
a very special novel which may well become a classic.’ Lee Smith, author of NEWS OF THE SPIRIT.

Ray in Reverse

‘Daniel Wallace brings to his role as author wit, a subtle compassion, and an offbeat originality that begins, but certainly doesn’t end, with the backward unreeling of this refreshingly savvy novel.’ The Boston Globe Regret looms large in Daniel Wallace’s latest novel, Ray in Reverse, the funny and poignant story of a life, told backward. Sitting in the Last Words support group in Heaven, Ray Williams ruminates on his short life of fifty years, his episodes of infidelity, his premature marriage proposal, his sexual confusion, the dog he accidentally killed, and the baby he unwittingly saved. Ray is Everyman at his very best and his absolute worst even he can’t always tell the difference. Beginning at death and ending in his childhood, Ray in Reverse leads us back to Ray in his innocence, achieving, against all odds, a happy ending.

The Watermelon King

From an author whose work has been praised for its ‘wit, subtle compassion, and an offbeat originality’ Boston Globe comes a novel as unforgettable as it is compelling. An endearing blend of fable, fairy tale, and page turner, The Watermelon King brings readers back to Ashland, Alabama immortalized in Big Fish a fictional town whose identity is based on its long ago abundance of watermelons. Thomas Rider knows almost nothing about his parents, only that his mother died the day he was born in Ashland. He travels there and interviews the townspeople, learning of the town’s bizarre past. Most importantly, he learns about the Watermelon Festival, which at one time occurred annually and would symbolically ensure the continued fertility of the crop that sustained them and how his mother came to destroy it. Piecing together his own identity, as well as that of the town, Thomas finds himself immersed in a series of events that turns everything he knows upside down. Outrageous at times and heartbreaking at others, The Watermelon King is a vivid exploration of the power of history and of storytelling, of identity and myth. This novel is Wallace’s most provocative and inventive work to date.

Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

From the author of Big Fish comes this haunting, tender story that weaves a tragic secret, a mysterious meeting with the Devil, and a family of charming circus freaks recounting the extraordinary adventures of their friend Henry Walker, the Negro Magician. In the middle of a dusty Southern town, in the middle of the twentieth century, magician Henry Walker entertains crowds at Jeremiah Musgrove’s Chinese Circus. Though not the world famous illusionist he once was, Henry, with his dark skin and green eyes, is still something of a novelty to the patrons who pay a dime to see his show. Most of the patrons, anyway. As the novel begins, one May night in 1954, Henry is confronted by three menacing white teens, and soon thereafter disappears. With his fate uncertain, his friends from the circus Jenny the Ossified Girl, Rudy the Strong Man, and JJ the Barker piece together what they know of Henry’s mysterious and extraordinary life. The result is a spellbinding adventure that begins when ten year old Henry meets the devil, who gives him the art of magic and then steals the one thing that means the most to him. As Henry s friends recount the remarkable adventures and incredible heartache that result from this childhood encounter, only one thing seems certain about Henry’s life: nothing is as it appears. Brim*ming with surprising twists and turns, and peopled with a literal circus of memorable characters, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician is Daniel Wallace at his finest. As in his beloved debut, Big Fish, Wallace once again conjures a wondrous tale with an emotional punch. This is a story of love and loss, identity and illusion, fate and choice; a story that will capture your heart and your imagination and not let go until the very last page.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment