Alan Rossi

Alan Rossi’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Granta, the Atlantic, Missouri Review, Florida Review, New Ohio Review, and Ninth Letter, among others. His novella Did You Really Just Say That To Me? was awarded the third annual New England Review Award for Emerging Writers, and he was the New England Review/Bread Loaf Scholar for 2017. He is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for ‘Unmoving like a Mighty River Stilled’ (Missouri Review), and an O. Henry Prize for ‘The Buddhist’ (Granta). He lives in South Carolina with his wife and daughter. His first novel, MOUNTAIN ROAD, LATE AT NIGHT, was published by Picador in February 2020. 

His second novel, OUR LAST YEAR, will be published by Prototype in the UK in spring 2022.

Praise for MOUNTAIN ROAD, LATE AT NIGHT (2020):

‘Mountain Road, Late at Night is a wondrous thing and deserves to win prizes. [...] As the six people in this drama draw closer geographically, so the cracks and contradictions in their intertwined relationships begin to appear. […] This novel is a difficult read in all the right senses: emotionally devastating, morally ambiguous, with questions left unanswered and no ideal solutions on offer. Nicholas’s section in particular is devastating […] Mountain Road, Late at Night is an extraordinary achievement, and whilst it is a difficult book to come to terms with it is absolutely not a difficult book to read. Rossi’s narrative burns off the page – I kept thinking of it as a stream of lights, of cat’s eyes, illuminating each new stretch of the road it travels, offering partial but transformative glimpses of what is to come. There are times you read a book and think: this writer loves and reveres the written word. This was one of those times for me. The imagery, the thought process, the densely articulated emotion, the lack of sentimentality, the heartfelt compassion and depth of empathy – these are the effects and attributes of Rossi’s writing and you will find this novel, slim though it is, circumscribed though it is in terms of its canvas and cast of characters, impossible to forget.’ Nina Allan, author of The Dollmaker and The Rift

'I was really moved by this extraordinary stream of consciousness accessing the deepest layers of four flawed people facing an unimaginably terrible situation. Compassionate and profound, this is the kind of novel that puts even difficult things into perspective.' Isobel Costello, Literary Sofa

'A minor miracle: a Buddhist instruction manual that is also a deeply compelling novel.' David Shields, author of Reality Hunger

'An enormously engaging novel. We don’t so much read it as live it with these troubled characters and the child, Jack, robbed of his parents by the shocking car crash on a lonely mountain road. This is a complex, deeply moving novel, given completely to the interrogation of its witnesses. An extraordinary debut for an extraordinary new talent.'  Frederick Barthelme, author of There Must Be Some Mistake 

'One to watch in 2020' Irish Times

‘[A] subtle examination of the effects of trauma and sudden loss, as well as a tense conflict between different views of parenting, what’s in the best interests of an orphaned child, and how it is influenced by one’s own upbringing. Through sharply drawn characters, Rossi achieves a clear-eyed and poignant view of a family in crisis.’ Sydney Morning Herald

'As simple as it is devastating. [...] Mountain Road, Late at Night is a book steeped in pathos, melancholy and regret. Rossi uses his set-up to revolve around his characters, to dig deep into their motivations, relationships, expectations and ideals and in doing so exposes some of the underpinnings of modern America. Rossi's alsmost forensic interrogation of these lives provides plenty to chew on but no easy answers or resolutions for either the characters themselves or for the reader.' Robert Goodman, Pile by the Bed