I was bored with the law and had a dream to write,” John Grisham recalled of his time as a young criminal defense attorney in Mississippi. His first novel, 1989’s A Time to Kill, was followed by the worldwide bestseller The Firm. After becoming a full-time writer, he became the king of the legal thriller, selling more than 300 million books.
Grisham, who was born in Arkansas on February 8, 1955, has also written sports books, young adult novels, a collection of short stories, and a nonfiction book about a baseball player wrongfully convicted of murder. His latest novel, The Sparring Partner, comes out a week after its presentation at the inaugural Santa Fe Literary Festival (May 20-23, 2022).
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His books have been translated into 40 languages and 10 of his publications, including The Client and The Brief Pelican, have been adapted for film. Here, we pick the 10 best novels from an author who says his goal is always to “satisfy the audience, deliver, and entertain.”
john grisham said his first novel, a time to kill, about a black father seeking revenge after white supremacists rape his 10-year-old daughter, was inspired by a real court case. it took three years to complete. Grisham, who based himself on young Mississippi attorney Jake Brigance, described the book as “a very accurate portrait of race relations in the Deep South.” only 5000 hardcover copies were printed and are now highly collectible.
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When Grisham received the Library of Congress’s prestigious Creative Achievement in Fiction Award, organizers hailed “a true American original.” As a writer, Grisham combines compelling characterization with the deft delivery of fresh and exciting plotlines. These skills were evident in Street Lawyer, a novel about a rising star at a giant Washington law firm who risks everything to investigate violations of the rights of the homeless.
In 2021, Grisham said he was more interested in writing about “social justice” issues and all the things “wrong with our criminal and legal systems.” he said that writing the camera nearly four decades earlier helped him realize that he “could weave a novel around things like the death penalty.” The novel, set in Chicago’s top law firm, is a powerful story of a liberal lawyer who takes on the seemingly impossible case of a former clan member on death row for a fatal bombing in 1967.
Grisham reportedly wrote the character of New Orleans law student Darby Shaw with Julia Roberts in mind – and she went on to play the part in the film adaptation a year after it was first published. It’s a gripping thriller about a conspiracy to conceal the truth behind the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. In the pacy story, Shaw goes into hiding and has to rely on the help of an ambitious young reporter (played onscreen by Denzel Washington).
Grisham admitted that he once got “very upset” when a “wacko at a party” called out to him that he “just wrote scripts.” Although The Client was made into a blockbuster movie (starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones), it’s fair to say that Grisham’s original story, about an 11-year-old boy from Memphis who discovers the secret behind the assassination of a senator. on the part of the mafia, it is full of tension. In addition, the atmospheric descriptions recall the work of Grisham’s literary hero, Mark Twain.
Grisham said that his legal background gave him the capacity to handle language and “not be fearful” in his writing. One of his boldest stories is The Testament, a sweeping suspense adventure set in Washington DC and in the isolated Brazilian wetlands. The novel centres on a lawyer’s search for a missionary physician who has inherited an $11 billion (£8.7 billion) fortune. The plot thickens upon the devious machinations of the doctor’s greedy family.
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Even in his sixties, Grisham was showing off his storytelling skills with the Guardians, a compelling 21st-century tale of wrongful conviction and small-town conspiracy, set in Florida. The novel, based on a true case of miscarriage of justice and based on Grisham’s own religious upbringing, is about a workaholic Episcopalian priest and lawyer named Cullen Post, who is what is known as a “Counsel of Innocence.”
In the tense thriller, the partner, young lawyer Patrick Lanigan, from Biloxi, Mississippi, fakes his own death and flees to Brazil with $90m (£71m) stolen from his company. The novel shows how Grisham excels in his goal of writing “high-quality popular fiction,” which is also underpinned by the “authenticity” of someone who really knows court proceedings.
Incredibly, for a book that ended up selling seven million copies, Grisham admitted that for six months after the signing ended, “no publisher wanted to buy it.” Grisham said that during 10 years of legal work, his clients were typically “little people fighting big corporations” and he used those memories to plot the book. The novel, turned into a hit movie starring Tom Cruise as Harvard law graduate Mitch McDeere, tells the story of a lawyer who discovers he is working for a company run by the Chicago mob. The novel propelled Grisham into the world spotlight.
The Rainmaker, Grisham’s sixth novel, is a scathing indictment of the American legal system. Grisham said the lead, a rookie memphis lawyer named Rudy Baylor who fights injustice in his first case, was perhaps his favorite character. He “dropped out of the legal profession, found a girl, packed up his car and said, ‘I’m out of here.’ that’s what he always wanted to do when he was a lawyer. he never wanted to go back to the office,” he admitted. Baylor was portrayed by Matt Damon in the acclaimed film adaptation directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
the independent, as the event’s international media partner, will provide coverage throughout the festival days, as well as during the run-up with exclusive interviews with some of the leading authors. For more information about the festival, visit our santa fe literary festival sectionor visit the festival website. to learn more about buying tickets click here.
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