Hope

Noted poet, author of Sand (Green Integer 67) and numerous other works, Dennis Phillips turns his talents to fiction in Hope. This, his first novel, is a work of two intertwining stories: one of a monk lured to an isolated island, the other of a contemporary man who first imagines himself imprisoned on an unknown island and later finds himself in a real island paradise, where "hope" is restored. Both stories represent kinds of imprisonment and torture, the first based on historical events, the second on the psychological confusion of the character. What Phillips ultimately reveals through the intertwining themes of these at first seemingly unrelated adventures is that beyond the horrors and everyday despair of living there is always the possibility of redemption, of hope and the salve of love in human life.

In this brilliantly structured and subtly nuanced fiction, Phillips has created one of his most inviting and redeeming works of his career.

Author of A World (1989), Arena (1991), Book of Hours (1996), Credence (1996), and Sand (2002) among other works of poetry, Phillips teaches at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the city where he lives with his wife, Courtney Gregg, and their daughter Sophia.

See the PIP Biography of this author