Forty Crows: a novel

Eddie McGrath is a reluctant graduate student at loose ends after the nearlysimultaneous death of his father and almost certain release from the threat ofbeing drafted to serve in Viet Nam. Having been captivated by the RiveraMurals in his native Detroit he finds himself traveling to Mexico City toresearch the great muralists and extend his no longer necessary studentdraft status. Far out of his comfort zone, Eddie is drawn by the inscrutablebeauty Ursula into a rag-tag group of would-be student revolutionaries, living in the shadow of the Tlateloco massacre of 1968. Torn between his blue-collared urban midwestern upbringing and the urgent roiling world ofMexico City, Eddie must negotiate both before he can become himself in either. Forty Crows is a remarkable journey of one man's search for meaning after his father dies, his brother disappears, and he enters into Mexico to study the paintings of Diego Rivera. Behind a shimmering, permeable curtain, strangeness and illumination is to be found--from underground boxing, art that comes to life, and the steely bonds of love, even with the departed. Stevenson's body of work is varied, intriguing, brave and compelling..

Jo-Ann Mapson, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Solomon's Oak, Bad Girl Creek and Blue Rodeo.Praise for the author's earlier work including Letters from Chamonix, winner of the Banff Mountain Book Award:

"Stevenson accomplishes what every narrative writer should aspire to, fiction or nonfiction: making readers forget where they actually are. The written reality overpowers the outside world."

Craig Childs, in CirqueWith Letters from Chamonix, Stevenson demonstrates his ability as one of the great prose stylists of modern climbing literature. His words reflect that shift in vision that arrives at the most intense and quiet moments . . .

Katie Ives, AlpinistIt's in these ethereal interstices of the stories that Stevenson explores the heady themes we all experience . . . isolation, solitude, joy, danger, pain, death.

Cameron M. Burns in The American Alpine JournalThere are only a handful of writers that exhibit Stevenson's mastery of tenderness with such harsh and heavy subjects. Of those writers, not one of them is as vulnerable or bleeds as much humility.

Nicholas Dighiera, www.wordsworthing.com