{"title":"Michael Patrick F Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the poignant and evocative works of Michael Patrick F. Smith, a master of contemporary fiction. Delve into stories that explore themes of identity, belonging, and the human condition. Start browsing now!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"good-hand-book-michael-patrick-f-smith-9780008399481","title":"The Good Hand","description":"A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2021                                     ‘Thrillingly and wrenchingly funny … like Educated and Hillbilly Elegy’                           DAVID LIPSKY                                     ‘After reading The Good Hand you may reassess whether you have ever truly done a hard day’s work in your life … This lyrical and engrossing memoir is an extraordinary tale … Undeniably powerful’                            SUNDAY TIMES                                     The must-read memoir of 2021.                        Michael Patrick Smith grew up in a ramshackle farmhouse where his father beat the walls and threw dinner plates. As a restless young man left unmoored by the crashing economy, Smith cut a path to North Dakota to rent a mattress on a flophouse floor. Sleeping boot to beard with the other rough-edged men looking to earn a cent drilling for oil, Smith wanted the work to burn him clean – of his violent upbringing, his demons, his disjointed, doomed relationships. He did not expect, among these quick-fisted, foul-mouthed hands, to find a community.             The Good Hand is a memoir of danger and exhaustion, of suffering, loneliness and grit, of masculinity and of learning how to reconcile yourself to yourself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49524449149201,"sku":"GOR012395576","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49739207541009,"sku":"NGR9780008399481","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51111340343569,"sku":"GOR012184113","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51118881014033,"sku":"GOR014180310","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008399484.jpg?v=1751443213"},{"product_id":"good-hand-book-michael-patrick-f-smith-9780008399436","title":"The Good Hand","description":"A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2021                                     ‘Thrillingly and wrenchingly funny … like Educated and Hillbilly Elegy’                           DAVID LIPSKY                                     ‘After reading The Good Hand you may reassess whether you have ever truly done a hard day’s work in your life … This lyrical and engrossing memoir is an extraordinary tale … Undeniably powerful’                            SUNDAY TIMES                                     The must-read memoir of 2021.                        Michael Patrick Smith grew up in a ramshackle farmhouse where his father beat the walls and threw dinner plates. As a restless young man left unmoored by the crashing economy, Smith cut a path to North Dakota to rent a mattress on a flophouse floor. Sleeping boot to beard with the other rough-edged men looking to earn a cent drilling for oil, Smith wanted the work to burn him clean – of his violent upbringing, his demons, his disjointed, doomed relationships. He did not expect, among these quick-fisted, foul-mouthed hands, to find a community.             The Good Hand is a memoir of danger and exhaustion, of suffering, loneliness and grit, of masculinity and of learning how to reconcile yourself to yourself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49595806712081,"sku":"GOR011356600","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697844785425,"sku":"NGR9780008399436","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50713357287697,"sku":"GOR014044943","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51563861278993,"sku":"GOR012471975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008399433.jpg?v=1751036084"},{"product_id":"good-hand-book-michael-patrick-f-smith-9780008399443","title":"The Good Hand","description":"A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2021                                     Thrillingly and wrenchingly funny  like EducatedandHillbilly Elegy                           DAVID LIPSKY","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49882929168657,"sku":"GOR012443885","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50342252511505,"sku":"CIN0008399441A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51859106365713,"sku":"CIN0008399441G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008399441.jpg?v=1751354843"},{"product_id":"good-hand-book-michael-patrick-f-smith-9781984881519","title":"The Good Hand","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA book that should be read . . . Smith brings an alchemic talent to describing physical labor. --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eRemarkable . . . this is the book that \u003ci\u003eHillbilly Elegy \u003c\/i\u003eshould have been.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA vivid window into the world of working class men set during the Bakken fracking boom in North Dakota\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLike thousands of restless men left unmoored in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, Michael Patrick Smith arrived in the fracking boomtown of Williston, North Dakota five years later homeless, unemployed, and desperate for a job. Renting a mattress on a dirty flophouse floor, he slept boot to beard with migrant men who came from all across America and as far away as Jamaica, Africa and the Philippines. They ate together, drank together, argued like crows and searched for jobs they couldn't get back home. Smith's goal was to find the hardest work he could do--to find out if he could do it. He hired on in the oil patch where he toiled fourteen hour shifts from summer's 100 degree dog days to deep into winter's bracing whiteouts, all the while wrestling with the demons of a turbulent past, his broken relationships with women, and the haunted memories of a family riven by violence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Good Hand\u003c\/i\u003e is a saga of fear, danger, exhaustion, suffering, loneliness, and grit that explores the struggles of America's marginalized boomtown workers--the rough-hewn, castoff, seemingly disposable men who do an indispensable job that few would exalt: oil field hands who, in the age of climate change, put the gas in our tanks and the food in our homes. Smith, who had pursued theater and played guitar in New York, observes this world with a critical eye; yet he comes to love his coworkers, forming close bonds with Huck, a goofy giant of a young man whose lead foot and quick fists get him into trouble with the law, and The Wildebeest, a foul-mouthed, dip-spitting truck driver who torments him but also trains him up, and helps Smith make a hand. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Good Hand \u003c\/i\u003eis ultimately a book about transformation--a classic American story of one man's attempt to burn himself clean through hard work, to reconcile himself to himself, to find community, and to become whole.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49950222516497,"sku":"CIN1984881515G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51299807035665,"sku":"CIN1984881515A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52107659444497,"sku":"CIN1984881515VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1984881515.jpg?v=1750901210"},{"product_id":"good-hand-book-michael-patrick-f-smith-9781984881533","title":"The Good Hand","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A book that should be read . . . Smith brings an alchemic talent to describing physical labor.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Beautiful, funny, and harrowing.\" - Sarah Smarsh, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Remarkable . . . this is the book that \u003ci\u003eHillbilly Elegy\u003c\/i\u003e should have been.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A vivid window into the world of working class men set during the Bakken fracking boom in North Dakota\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Like thousands of restless men left unmoored in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, Michael Patrick Smith arrived in the fracking boomtown of Williston, North Dakota five years later homeless, unemployed, and desperate for a job. 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