Summer Reading: Ron Hansen’s Exiles

Ron Hansen writes about exiles – people who find themselves on the outskirts of society for various reasons.  Hansen’s first two novels, Desperadoes and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (now a movie) recount the stories of outlaws from the American Wild West.

His new book, Exiles, tells how news of a shipwreck in 1875 prompted Gerard Manley Hopkins to break years of “elected silence” to compose some of the finest poetry of his life.  At the time Hopkins faced tremendous internal turmoil about his own calling both as a writer and as a priest.

Hansen shares more about Hopkins, the new book, and himself in an interview on Fresh Air which can be heard here.