Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Veracruz Blues | 1996 | Mark Winegardner | Buy |
| 2 | Crooked River Burning | 2001 | Mark Winegardner | Buy |
Mark Winegardner’s standalone novels show his range as a literary fiction writer. The Veracruz Blues, published in 1996, tells the story of the Mexican Baseball League’s brief attempt to rival Major League Baseball in the 1940s. It blends real historical figures with fictional characters and won the Associated Writing Programs Award for the Novel.
Crooked River Burning, published in 2001, is a sprawling novel about Cleveland from the postwar boom through the Cuyahoga River fire of 1969. It tracks two characters from different sides of the city across decades of racial tension, economic change, and cultural upheaval. Both novels show Winegardner’s interest in using specific American settings to tell larger stories about ambition and identity.