Philipp Meyer

Philipp Meyer is an acclaimed American author of literary fiction hailed by critics for his bold and imaginative stories. Meyer was born in 1974 and raised in Texas, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997. Meyer's formative post-college years were spent learning the oil business, but it was his attraction to complex narrative and language that ultimately led him away from corporate life as an energy trader and on to a career as a published writer.

Meyer's first novel, American Rust, was published in 2009 and enjoyed great initial recognition, earning him a finalist position for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction and the Cornell Woolrich Award. Meyer further solidified his place in literature with The Son, a long-form novel that captured the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014.

Meyer's works take an often unpredictable and darkly complex approach to his subjects, delving deeply into dark and often destructive family dynamics, crime, and the balance of power. His stories delve well below the surface, often tackling social issues and asking the most difficult questions about the consequences of choices and wondering about the inherit morality of our actions.

American Rust is a story of murder and moral chaos and dive's into the human condition and poverty of a small depressed Rust Belt town in Pennsylvania. Meyer tackles themes of power, loyalty and relationships while presenting a picture of a community in decline and change as a family proves to be the strongest tool in navigating troubled times.

The Son is an epic and expansive historical novel, spanning a 150-year course of family history in Texas. Meyer delves deep into the legacy of power and violence, centering the book around a family who maintain the balance of the oil business in the state. His story-telling features a mix of multiple characters and timelines, both past and present, to fully build the narrative.

Meyer's forthcoming 2021 novel, The Shuttleworths, draws on life-events from his own childhood. In it he tackles questions of money, power and identity as a young man from a wealthy family finds himself increasingly estranged from all he has known and increasingly dependent on his own merits and inner strength.

Meyer is broadly acclaimed for his brilliant story-telling and for delving into powerful and controversial subjects. His writing has been praised for its boldness, its unflinching examination of the human condition, and for the way he utilizes language to create his imaginative stories. From American Rust to The Son, Philipp Meyer has distinguished himself as a master of literary fiction, commanding the attention of critics and fans of the genre alike. With his latest work, The Shuttleworths, Meyer is sure to continue to build on his formidable reputation and impressive career as one of the top authors of the 21st century.