The Hands of Strangers (2011) In early 2011, Smith's debut work,
The Hands of Strangers, was published by the Mint Hill Books imprint of the
Charlotte-based publisher Main Street Rag Publishing. It is a
novella set in Paris and focuses on Jon and Estelle, whose nine-year-old daughter Jennifer is kidnapped during a class field trip at the
Musée d'Orsay. In its starred review,
Publishers Weekly wrote, "Smith captures the essence of the helpless, making more of an impact than most novels three times its size."
Rivers (2013) In September 2013, Smith's first full-length novel,
Rivers, was published by
Simon & Schuster.
Rivers is set in post-
Hurricane Katrina Mississippi in the distant future as a series of violent storms devastate the state's southern
Gulf Coast. It has been described both as
post-apocalyptic fiction and
dystopian fiction. In its starred review,
Kirkus Reviews praised Smith's "expertly executed" example of a post-apocalyptic society and the novel's "compelling" plot; the publication also called Smith's prose "lush, descriptive and even beautiful."
The New York Times praised Smith's "incantatory prose" for powering the narrative.
Rivers was awarded the 2014 Mississippi Authors Award for Fiction by the
Mississippi Library Association.
Desperation Road (2017) Smith's third novel,
Desperation Road, was published in February 2017 by Lee Boudreaux Books, an imprint of
Little, Brown and Company. Set in Mississippi, it follows Russell Gaines, who is released from
Mississippi State Penitentiary after serving an eleven-year sentence. As he travels back to his hometown of McComb, his path intertwines with that of Maben Jones. Jones, a homeless woman and former addict, is searching for a life for her and her young daughter Annalee. When a deputy sheriff attempts to rape Maben, she shoots and kills him. In its starred review,
Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Smith writes shapely prose and sharp dialogue and everywhere displays an acute sense of the moments and pain that can define lives in a small town."
Desperation Road was a finalist for the 2018
Southern Book Prize. It was also longlisted for the 2017
Gold Dagger in the United Kingdom. The novel's French translation was a finalist for the 2017
Grand prix des lectrices de Elle. A
film adaptation of the same name written by Smith and starring
Garrett Hedlund and
Mel Gibson was released in 2023.
The Fighter (2018) Smith's fourth novel,
The Fighter, was published in March 2018 by Little, Brown and Company.
The Fighter was adapted into a film entitled
Rumble Through the Dark (2023), directed by brothers Parker and
Graham Phillips and produced by
Cassian Elwes. Smith wrote the screenplay adaptation of the novel.
Blackwood (2020) Smith's fifth novel,
Blackwood, was published in March 2020 by Little, Brown and Company.
Blackwood was included on
NPR's "Best Books of 2020" list,
The Timess "Best fiction books of the year 2020" list, and
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "10 best Southern books of 2020" list.
Nick (2021) Smith's sixth novel,
Nick, was published on January 5, 2021 by Little, Brown and Company. It is a
prequel to
The Great Gatsby,
F. Scott Fitzgerald's landmark 1925 novel.
The Great Gatsbys U.S.
copyright expired on January 1, 2021, when all works published in 1925 entered the
public domain in the United States.
Nick centers on the narrator of
The Great Gatsby,
Nick Carraway, in the years before the events of Fitzgerald's novel. It follows Nick Carraway as a soldier in
World War I, his detours in Paris, and his time in New Orleans before his move up to
Long Island.
Kirkus Reviews called
Nick a "compelling character study."
Publishers Weekly praised the "striking imagery" of the war chapters, but felt the novel ultimately did not provide any deeper understand of Nick Carraway.
Ron Charles of
The Washington Post felt the novel failed to expand on the original story, and criticized its second half for withdrawing Nick's perspective too far and leaving readers with "noir caricatures and their lurid spat."
Salvage This World (2023) Smith's seventh novel,
Salvage This World, was published on April 23, 2023, by Little, Brown and Company. The book is set in an uncertain time in the future when the Mississippi Gulf Coast has become all but uninhabitable because of the effects of climate change. The Gulf hurricane season, once confined to the period of June through November, now never ends. The novel follows Jessie, a young mother, and her child, as they come home to see her ghost-haunted father, Wade. Jobs are few and resources fewer. The Gulf Coast's remaining inhabitants are primarily people who are too poor to leave and grifters who come to prey on them. One of those grifters is Elser, a con woman who leads a traveling tent revival she has dubbed the Temple of Pain and Glory. In his review for
The New York Times,
John Brandon said the book portrays a "a Deep South where hospitality feels impossible, from which everyone with means and sense has departed, a society where any vehicle on the road might have a bound (if alive) or bagged (if dead) human as its cargo."
Short fiction Smith's short fiction has twice been nominated for a
Pushcart Prize. == Personal life ==