About this item
From Pulitzer Prize finalist Mark Di Ionno comes the next Great American Novel about the Great American Pastime - The Natural with echoes of Ford, Updike, DeLillo and Roth - two men from disparate worlds and their search for what constitutes a meaningful life in a searing portrait of honor and masculinity, sport and celebrity, marriage and parenthood.Joe Grudeck is a living legend - a first-ballot Hall of Famer beloved by Boston Red Sox fans who once played for millions under the bright Fenway lights. Now, he finds himself haunted by his own history, searching for connection in a world that's alienated the true person behind his celebrity facade. He'll step back into the spotlight once more with a very risky Cooperstown acceptance speech that has the power to change everything - except the darkness in his past.
About the Author
Mark Di Ionno's second novel "Gods of Wood and Stone," now available on pre-order, has been praised by Kirkus:
"Di Ionno starkly portrays a dangerous and frightening passion for violence that too often has become synonymous with the expression of the American male psyche ... .he offers an entertaining, and tantalizingly plausible, origin story for the country's obsession with celebrity and diversion. The national pastime is the backdrop for an incisive exploration of manhood in modern America."
Mark is a lifetime newspaperman and a 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist in news commentary, primarily for his work on Hurricane Sandy. He is also a five-time winner of the New Jersey Press Association's first-place award for column writing. His columns appear regularly in The Star-Ledger, and its online partner, nj.com, with an estimated readership of over 1 million people.
"Gods of Wood and Stone" will be released by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster in July. It is available on pre-order on Amazon.
He is also a contributor to the acclaimed "It Occurs to Me I am America," an anthology of short stories, also from Touchstone.
In an anthology filled with famous authors, two readers singled out Mark's story "Intersections" as the best of the bunch.
(See customer reviews on Amazon) .
Prior to becoming a columnist the Star-Ledger he was of the principal editors involved in the paper's 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Gov. Jim McGreevey's abrupt resignation and the 2001 Pulitzer-finalist coverage of the Seton Hall fire.
Mark began his career in sports and was a columnist at The New York Post, where he broke many stories, including parts of baseball's case against Pete Rose and the undoing of Mike Tyson.
Mark's first novel and most recent publication is The Last Newspaperman, which along with his Revolutionary War book (see below) , were put on NJ 350's "101 Greatest New Jersey Books.'' The novel was also a finalist in USA Books and ForeWord Reviews "Best of 2012" contests and is praised by customers reviews on Amazon.
Mark is the author of three award-winning nonfiction books that include New Jersey's Coastal Heritage, and A Guide to New Jersey's Revolutionary War Trail which received the New Jersey Academic Alliance Award.
Backroads, New Jersey was named among the most notable New Jersey books (1995-2005) by the New Jersey Center for the Book. He was also a contributing editor to The Encyclopedia of New Jersey.
He is an adjunct professor of journalism at Rutgers University and the father of six children.
