Daniel Wallace is the author of four novels, BIG FISH: A NOVEL OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS, RAY IN REVERSE, THE WATERMELON KING, and most recently, MR SEBASTIAN AND THE NEGRO MAGICIAN. BIG FISH was been translated into twenty-one languages, THE WATERMELON KING into eleven and RAY IN REVERSE into two. THE BIG FISH is regularly selected as a “One Town, One Book” choice and is a huge favorite of book clubs.
In 2003 Columbia Pictures released the film version of THE BIG FISH, directed by Tim Burton. It earned made more than $125 million at the box office and received nominations for Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Wallace’s illustrated children's book for adults, O GREAT ROSENFELD! was published in France, Italy and Montenegro. A soundtrack to the book was written and performed by Falcon. His illustrations have appeared in the L.A. Times, Italian Vanity Fair and many other publications. His short stories have been widely published and anthologized.
Wallace was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended Emory University and the University of North Carolina, and now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife and son.
LA Times: “MR. SEBASTIAN AND THE NEGRO MAGICIAN ends on a poignant and provocative note. The author — like any good magician — refuses to give away all of his secrets.”
Time Out, New York: "Wallace, at times, writes like a man possessed. The Southern-gothic framework is a perfect vehicle for his febrile imagination, and mastery of the period’s argot only adds to the extraordinary imagery his descriptions inspire.”
USA Today: “Good novelists are magicians. They play with the imaginations of readers. They conjure up worlds out of nothing but words on paper. Daniel Wallace… plays with stories the way magicians play with cards. [He} writes with a heartbreaking kind of razzle-dazzle.”
Below is a beautiful video created for the Spanish translation of the book.
New York Times Book Review: "Despite Ray's habits of the heart, Wallace suggests that the only hero a life like Ray's can have is Ray himself: he's more Homer Simpson than David Copperfield, but wise enough to see the ironies of his acts on earth and eventually able to tell a good joke in heaven."
USA Today: "A comic novel about death, about the mysteries of parents and the redemptive power of storytelling."
Birmingham Weekly: "A magic carpet ride of a novel...amazing."
The New York Times Book Review: "Comic and poignant...a nice encapsulation of the complexity with which many sons view their fathers."
San Diego Union Tribune: "Refreshingly different...Wallace exhibits a masterly touch in portraying the son's hunt for a more intimate relationship with his father...with an aplomb that encourages the reader to swallow [the myths] hook, line, and sinker."
