Mule Boy - by Andrew Krivak (Paperback)

About the Book

"On New Year's Day, 1929, Ondro Prach, the thirteen-year-old son of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania coal country, begins a new job as mule boy. He knows the danger-his father died in the mines-but he is proud of his position handling the animal that hauls cartloads of coal from shafts deep within the earth to the surface. After Ondro earns the trust of the miners and the mule in his charge, the room the men are working collapses and their fate is sealed. From that moment onward, Ondro carries the hard memory of that day, a burden that leads to addiction and imprisonment, costing him his family. But, years later, when the miners' loved ones come searching for answers, he finds the strength to share what the men spoke of and prayed for in the pitch black. Told in incantatory prose set to the rhythm of human breath, this sublime novel turns the memento mori into a meditation not only on death but on what it takes to tunnel through darkness and live"--

Book Synopsis

NPR "BOOK OF THE DAY"
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "WHAT TO READ NEXT"

An elegiac novel of men lost in a coal mining disaster and the boy who survives to tell the story

On New Year's Day, 1929, Ondro Prach, the thirteen-year-old son of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania coal country, begins a new job as mule boy. He knows the danger--his father died in the mines--but he is proud of his position handling the animal that hauls cartloads of coal from shafts deep within the earth to the surface. After Ondro earns the trust of the miners and the mule in his charge, the room the men are working collapses and their fate is sealed.

From that moment onward, Ondro carries the hard memory of that day, a burden that leads to addiction and imprisonment, costing him his family. But, years later, when the miners' loved ones come searching for answers, he finds the strength to share what the men spoke of and prayed for in the pitch black.

Told in incantatory prose set to the rhythm of human breath, this sublime novel turns the memento mori into a meditation not only on death but on what it takes to tunnel through darkness and live.

Review Quotes

Praise for Mule Boy

NPR "Book of the Day" selection
New York Times Book Review "What to Read Next" selection
PopMatters "Picks" selection
Christian Science Monitor "Best Books of the Month" selection
BookBrowse "New and Notable Books" selection
Literary Hub "Most Anticipated Books" selection

"Krivak captures the terror and tenderness of [the miners'] ordeal, and he builds to an ending of exceptional catharsis. This novel is a stunner." --Wall Street Journal

"Krivak's Mule Boy becomes an elegy not just for the Slovak miners of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, but for the person Ondro became in the aftermath." --New York Times Book Review

"This poignant and elegiac novel explores the dignity of Pennsylvania coal miners. . . . Aching and artful, this is a tiny, perfect, lyrical gem." --Toronto Star

"An extraordinary work of rescue, witnessing, and redemption." --Christian Science Monitor

"Invites readers on a descent into the soul. . . . Krivak's [Mule Boy] evinces his agile lyricism and depth, his capacity for mapping the terrain of the enduring human spirit with a gentle hand." --America Magazine

"[Krivak] writes with pulsating rhythm and simple, elegiac prose. . . . The anthracite's sheen, the smell of a carbide lamp, and the memento mori will cling to you long after reading." --Harvard Magazine

"A storyteller's profound tale, elegantly told." --PopMatters

"[Krivak] gets love, family, faith, and home on the page--all of it--the good, the fraught, the mysterious. . . . [Mule Boy] reads as trauma, prayer, and expiation." --Pittsburgh Review of Books

"[Krivak] does it all in exquisite prose that explores a fascinating period in American history." --Washington Independent Review of Books

"Storytelling at its finest. . . . A rare gem and an utterly unforgettable reading experience." --WOSU All Sides Weekend

"[A] shattering novel. . . . Exquisitely observed." --Arts Fuse

"Krivak brilliantly succeeds at plumbing the depths of the human spirit. . . . This is flawless." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Artfully explicates a philosophy of life, love, and death." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Harrowing and immersive." --Foreword Reviews

"Atmospheric and evocative." --Historical Novels Review

"Descending into the coal mines of Pennsylvania in the early part of the twentieth century, Andrew Krivak has come up with a diamond. Mule Boy is both mesmerizing and emotionally shattering. Its beautiful, hypnotic, lyrical prose, often reminiscent of the scriptures, casts a spell so profound that you will not want to break out of it." --Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others and Choice

"Andrew Krivak is one of contemporary fiction's finest architects of the line, and I am utterly swept away by his lyric, daring, and kinetic music. Mule Boy is a riveting exploration of the ghosts we carry coiled within us--and what is unleashed when they leap out into the present. This book is as brilliant and sure as a bolt of lightning." --Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel and State of Paradise

"Sometimes you hold a writer so close you want them all to yourself. Andrew Krivak has been that writer for me and his Mule Boy blazes so brightly it has already become, in my life, a great constellation. This novel is bewitching sorcery, a total wonder, a raging fever dream that sings and bellows and captures the entirety of our lives--all the things we fear and love and let go of and win back and cherish the most. It should, and will, stand alongside the works of Roberto Bolaño, Marilynne Robinson, and Denis Johnson. Here is a tale for our times, for all time." --Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters and The Hive and the Honey

Select Praise for Andrew Krivak

"Some writers are good at drawing a literary curtain over reality, and then there are writers who raise the veil and lead us to see for the first time. Krivak belongs to the latter." --National Book Award judges' citation

"[Krivak's] work has been compared to William Faulkner's in its rich sense of place, to Wendell Berry's in its attentiveness to natural beauty, and to Cormac McCarthy's in its deep investigation of violence and myth. Yet all of Krivak's writing, and especially his fiction, presents a truly singular vision." --Anthony Domestico, Image

"An extraordinarily elegant writer, with a deep awareness of the natural world." --Roxana Robinson, New York Times Book Review

"Eloquent, sensitive." --Jennifer Haigh, Boston Globe

"Delivers revelation after revelation." --Ben Fountain

"Incandescent." --Marlon James

"Spare and lovely." --Adam Johnson

"Grand and unforgettable." --Maaza Mengiste

"A writer of rare and powerful elegance." --Mary Doria Russell

"[A] singular talent." --Jesmyn Ward

"Explores themes that profoundly resonate today." --Harper's Bazaar

About the Author

Andrew Krivak is an award-winning writer whose books include Mule Boy; The Bear, a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read selection; and the freestanding novels of the Dardan Trilogy: The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist; and Like the Appearance of Horses, a Library Journal "Best Book of the Year" and Indie Next List for Reading Groups selection. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and Jaffrey, New Hampshire.