KASE JOHNSTUN
KASE JOHNSTUN is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, and essayist. He is the author of the medical memoir Beyond the Grip of Craniosynostosis and the novels Cast Away and Let The Wild Grasses Grow, which was a finalist for the High Plains Book Awards and Reading the West and named a 2022 Women’s National Book Association Great Group Read. His work has also been published widely by literary journals and trade magazines. Johnstun lives in Ogden, Utah.
BEHIND THE BOOK
An interview with Kase Johnstun about the making of Cast Away (Coming soon!).
BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
CAST AWAY
A Novel
What would you do for your shot at the American Dream? Veronica Chavez and her great nephew Chuy immigrate from Mexico to the US, their journeys seventy years apart, each willing to do whatever it takes to build the life of their dreams. In 1922, Veronica’s romantic expectations are crushed by the dangers of living alone in a foreign country. Young and determined, she finds community in Utah’s desert railroad towns. Decades later, Chuy comes with his family to Salt Lake City, but his parents are soon sent back to Mexico. Out of place but together, Chuy and Veronica manage to connect across generations—hatching a plan to finally win it big on reality TV.
“An intergenerational story that interrogates and celebrates the American dream.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
LET THE WILD GRASSES GROW
A Novel
Let the Wild Grasses Grow chronicles the lives of Della Chavez and John Cordova, childhood friends separated by a tragic accident, who find each other again during World War II after leading lives of struggle through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and, for John, abuse at the hands of his grandfather. This sweeping American love story celebrates the power of home landscapes, family heritage, and first love.
“Johnstun knows his terrain well, creating a palpable sense of the sky and soil, grasses and wildlife of the mesa—and the winds of change that swept through the nation for two tumultuous decades. A tender evocation of grief, hope, and dignity.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS