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Tom Bissell Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Tom Bissell

Tom Bissell

Tom Bissell Biography

Tom Bissell is the author of Chasing the Sea, God Lives in St. Petersburg, The Father of All Things, Why Video Games Matter, Magic Hours: Essays On Creators and Creation (2012) and Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve (2016). He also co-authored The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room (2013) with Greg Sestero. A recipient of the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Bay de Noc Community College Alumnus of the Year Award.

Tom Bissell is currently based in Los Angeles, California.



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Interview

Tom Bissell talks about the people of Central Asia, the difference between Muslims in Central Asia and in the Middle East and why the Aral Sea is Exhibit A for those who say environmental legislation is pointless.

In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a naive Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet irrigation policies. Joining up with an exuberant translator named Rustam, Bissell slipped more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police as he makes his often wild way to the devastated sea.

In his memoir, Chasing the Sea (2003), Bissell combines the story of his travels with a beguiling chronicle of Uzbekistan's striking culture and long history of violent subjugation by despots from Jenghiz Khan to Joseph Stalin. Alternately amusing and sobering, this is a gripping portrait of a fascinating place, and the debut of a singularly gifted young writer.
In January 2005 he published a collection of short stories, God Lives In St Petersburg, about Americans colliding with remote and often perilous parts of Central Asia, such as Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

This interview was conducted shortly after the publication of Chasing The Sea, and before the publication of God Lives In St Petersburg. ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Tom Bissell at BookBrowse
Extra Lives jacket The Father of All Things jacket God Lives In St. Petersburg jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Tom Bissell but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Rick Bass

    Rick Bass

    Rick Bass was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1958. His father was a geologist who passed on his passion to his son.  Bass received a B.S. in petroleum geology at Utah State University in 1979, and then worked as a gas ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    God Lives In St. Petersburg

    Try:
    The Lives of Rocks
    by Rick Bass

  • Cheryl Benard

    Cheryl Benard

    Dr. Cheryl Benard has worked as an analyst for European and American think tanks. She is a researcher with the RAND Corporation. She received her B.A. in political science from the American University of Beirut and her PhD ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    God Lives In St. Petersburg

    Try:
    Veiled Courage
    by Cheryl Benard

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