John Rolfe Gardiner — North of Ordinary - with John Lescault

"You're as likely to be hit twice by lightning on a Monday as see a wood chipper pull a man into its maw." So begins North of Ordinary, John Rolfe Gardner's virtuosic story collection of survivors getting by despite the odds in a shifting world. In these pages, we meet a nervous young apprentice to a weathered tree climber; a dangerously obsessed student at a Southern Bible college; an attractive schemer trying to build an audience for her tiny radio station; an undercover, cross-dressing lawman whose friendship changes the life of a deaf child in a suburban cul-de-sac; and an elderly Black mason whose knowledge of the town's history harbors truths that shake his visitor's foundation. Surprising, touching, and deeply humane, the ten stories of North of Ordinary offer an intimate, revelatory look at our fractured society and pull us together through the power of art. PURCHASE BOOK HERE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781954276321?ic_referral=fJaorNrZmh1gd7JYr3kUIqs4lOBUa-SlJBua8aKHhL8wM5lKWUkNt9l03FUE8yfF5qW00f8Km4Y8e0mfnLpnOAIV9CgJ5gVwsrNpO5ON4QEmqpXDxIDZNXbUxMdXOZlqmQHUUQ John Rolfe Gardiner was born in New York and grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia during World War II. Recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, he is the author of six novels and four collections of short fiction, including North of Ordinary. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, American Scholar, Oxford American, One Story, Pushcart Prize anthology, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. Gardiner lives in Middleburg, Virginia, with his wife, ceramic artist Joan Gardiner. Gardiner is in conversation with John Lescault. Lescault is an actor/narrator who been living and working in the DC area for nearly 50 years.  His stage work includes performances at: The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and the Round House Theatre, among many others.  John has narrated over 400 (and counting) audiobooks. He is delighted to be reunited with John Rolfe Gardiner.