Russell Banks

Facts about Russell Banks

Russell Banks died at 82 years old
Born: March 28, 1940
Died: January 8, 2023
Best known as: Author of The Sweet Hereafter

     
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Russell Banks Biography

Russell Banks was a New England writer famous for his novels Affliction (1990) and The Sweet Hereafter (1992), both of which were made into critically-acclaimed movies.

In the 1980s Banks began publishing short stories, most of which were included in his collections Trailerpark (1981), Success Stories (1986) and The Angel on the Roof (2000).

Banks’s stories are often drawn from his own experiences growing up poor in New England, or from time he spent in Jamaica, and often explore moral themes and personal relationships.

His other novels include The Book of Jamaica (1980), Continental Drift (1985), Rule of the Bone (1996), a historical novel about abolitionist John Brown, Cloudsplitter (1998), and 2004’s The Darling, a contemporary novel that takes place during Charles Taylor‘s rise to power in Liberia.

Extra credit

Banks and his daughter, Caerthan Banks, appear in the film The Sweet Hereafter (1997).


     

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