Jim Lynch

Jim Lynch is the author of two novels, The Highest Tide and Border Songs. The Highest Tide won the 2006 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and became a bestseller in the United States and the United Kingdom. His second novel, Border Songs, won the Washington State Book Award for Fiction in 2010 and was a finalist for the American Booksellers Award for the Best Fiction. Both novels have been adapted for the stage. Before becoming a full-time novelist Jim wrote for newspapers throughout the Northwest and beyond, winning the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, the George Polk Award and other national honors. He now lives in Olympia, Washington with his wife and daughter. For more info on Jim click on bio.


International Acclaim for The Highest Tide:

"A remarkable first novel ... This is an irresistible coming of age fable, dappled with lyricism, briny honesty and good humor. It's as if Rachel Carson herself (or, say, John McPhee) had turned to fiction, bringing an exacting sense of the ebb and flow of nature to the story of one largely unsupervised boy and the exploration of his surroundings." -- Los Angeles Times

"This novel is so very special. If you reach the last page without having laughed out loud, felt tears well up or at least once sat back in wonder at the extraordinary descriptoins of the sea and its creatures, then you may quite simply be inhuman."
-- London Independent

"Graceful and inventive first novel ... [Lynch's) declarative style and vivid imagery allow the science of the ocean to blend easily with its poetry." -- New York Times Book Review

"The kind of novel that book clubs live for, heartwarming, but not unosphisticated." -- Detroit Free Press

"The Highest Tide is one of the best novels it has been my pleasure to read for many a day. ... This is a great novel which you will want to re-read." -- London Independent.


The British version of The Highest Tide became a bestseller after it was showcased by the Richard & Judy Show, a televised book club in London.

TRUTH LIKE THE SUN, next novel, released in April

Paperback cover for U.S. and Canada
Border Songs, winner of the Washington State Book Award for Fiction. Finalist for the American Booksellers Association Best Novel. Picked as among the Best Books of 2009: The Washington Post - The Toronto Star - The St. Louis Post Dispatch - The Oregonian - Amazon.com


“Wonderful…tender, sad and leavened with wit, Border Songs reads like something written by a more efficient Richard Russo."
- Ron Charles, book editor for The Washington Post

"Border Songs" is one of the more inventive and unique novels of recent years. Lynch's dexterous handling of multiple voices and storylines makes Border Songs a book that goes by all too quickly."
Rege Behe, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Lynch's comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome."
-The Globe and Mail (Canada)

"Lynch observes like a journalist and writes like a poet. ... Brandon is one of the most remarkable characters created by a Northwest author in recent memory."
-Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times book editor

"Enthralling ... Lynch plays exquisitely with his theme of division and its consequences."
-Maclean's (Canada)

"A fascinating look at the confluence of small-town life, the global drug trade and illegal immigration, and it places Jim Lynch at the forefront of Northwest writers to watch."
-Willamette Week

"Lynch has broken through to the edge of literary stardom."
-Jeff Baker, The Oregonian.

For more REVIEWS click on the PRAISE page


The Norwegian Border Songs

Click on the Knopf link for a Q&A with Jim Lynch about "Border Songs"
To read more early praise for "Border Songs" click on the novels page.
For more information on Jim, click on the bio page.