NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES STARRING SAMUEL L. JACKSON The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a masterful, moving novel about age, memory, and family from one of the true literary icons of our time. Marooned in an apartment that overflows with mementos from the past, 91-year-old Ptolemy Grey is all but forgotten by his family and the world. But when an unexpected opportunity arrives, everything changes for Ptolemy in ways as shocking and unanticipated as they are poignant and profound.

The interviews in this collection cover Walter Mosley's career and reveal an overarching theme: a belief in the transformative power of reading and writing. Since the 1990 publication of his first novel, Devil in a Blue Dress , Mosley (b. 1952) has published over thirty books in a tremendous range of genres and modes: crime and detective fiction, science fiction, literary novels of ideas, character studies, political and social nonfiction, erotica, and memoir. Best known for his Easy Rawlins detective series and Socrates Fortlow series of crime novels, Mosley has created a body of work that as a whole chronicles and examines twentieth-century African American experience. Conversations with Walter Mosley covers the breadth of Mosley's career and reveals a craftsman and wryly witty conversationalist. Conscious of his forebears as well as literary techniques, he discusses favorites and influences including Camus, Shakespeare, and Dickens as well as writers in popular genres--especially speculative fiction and the hard-boiled noir detective tradition. He also discusses how his work modifies the crime tradition to engage it with black experience.

In spite of remarkable differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as brothers. Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune, Tommy is a sickly black boy, cursed with health problems, who yet remains optimistic and strong. After tragedy rips this makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys diverge astonishingly: Eric, the golden youth, is given everything but trusts nothing; Tommy, motherless and impoverished, has nothing, but feels lucky every day of his life. In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, the two confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, they draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save lives. Fortunate Son has the same brilliant observations of the hidden currents of modern life that won great praise for The Man in My Basement. It is a gripping literary novel that puts complex ideas and forces in play with irresistible drama.