Potato Tree - Tapa dura

Best-known for his Lew Griffin mystery series, his authoritative biography of Chester Himes, and myriad other writings over the past 40 years, James Sallis' Potato Tree is a series of dramatic and surrealistic short stories. Vivid imagery and heart wrenching emotions seep into Sallis' complex characters throughout the 41 stories in this unique and vibrant collection.

James Sallis has published short stories, poems, translations, essays and other nonfiction in publications ranging from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the New York Times to The Georgia Review. His books include eleven novels, multiple collections of stories, a biography of Chester Himes, three books of musicology, and a translation of Raymond Queneau's novel Saint Glinglin. For several years he wrote a regular books column for the Boston Globe, and still reviews regularly for the L.A. Times, Book World and others, as well as contributing a quarterly review column to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Jim teaches at Phoenix College in Arizona and at Otis College in L.A. He also works as a musician, performing solo, as a sideman with various bluegrass groups and singer-songwriters, and as a founding member of Three-Legged Dog, a trio of multi-instrumentalists.