Ray in Reverse » (Reprint)

Daniel Wallace has published stories in numerous magazines, including Story, Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, and Shenandoah. His first novel, Big Fish, was translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Daniel Wallace now lives with his son, Henry, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he also works as an illustrator.

Sitting in Last Words group where everyone is recounting their last words on earth, Ray is embarrassed. He didn't declare his love. He didn't say anything symbolic. He didn't reveal his benevolence or goodwill. In fact, he didn't even finish his sentence. His words didn't measure up, and now he can't seem to get them out of his head.

Now, in Heaven, he has time to reflect on his short life of fifty years. This is the darkly humorous story of that life, told backward. We see Ray Williams in his life's most crucial moments--his moments of infidelity, his premature proposal of marriage, his sexual confusion, the dog he accidentally killed, the penny he had to have, and the baby he unwittingly saved. Ray is Everyman at his very best and at his absolute worst--and is none too clear about when he's being either one. Beginning at death and ending at age ten, Wallace's novel leads us back to Ray in his innocence--achieving, against all odds, a happy ending.

Funny, unforgettable, and with one foot in a fabulistic world, Ray in Reverse continues the incandescent storytelling of Big Fish, the storytelling that one reviewer described as "Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Rowan and Martin."

New York Times Book Review

Both comic and poignant.