Garth Stein, bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, has always been a storyteller. He went to graduate school for film and made documentary films for years before he wrote his first novel, which he did while also working on grant proposals.
“It was almost accidental,” he says. “But I enjoyed the process, so I kept going.”
The Art of Racing in the Rain was his third book, and it spent 158 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. [It is back on the bestseller list for 5 weeks and counting.] The story is told from a dog’s point of view. Enzo knows that he’s different than other dogs: through his race car driver master, Denny, he’s gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he believes that in his next life he will surely return as a man. The inspiration for such a unique story?
“When I was making documentary films, I had seen a film made in Mongolia about dog reincarnation, dog transmogrification. It’s about the evolution of a dog’s soul into a human soul,” says Garth. “When I moved from New York to Seattle, I started doing some car racing and thought what a great world for a story. The dog came into it, and the next thing you knew, I had a book. Even though I wrote the book in only four months, it was years in gestation.”
Read more about Seattle author Garth Stein and beloved Enzo on the blog for Libro.fm, the digital audiobook company with which many independent bookstores partner. You can find “The Art of Racing in the Rain” at a movie theater near you– and the book at your favorite independent bookstores.
