Reif Larsen (born 1980) is an American author, known for ''

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet ''The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'' is the debut novel by American author Reif Larsen, first published in 2009. The book follows the exploits of a 12-year-old mapmaker named T.S. Spivet, who lives on a ranch near Divide, Montana, as he receives ...

'', for which '' Vanity Fair'' claimed Larsen received just under a million dollars as an advance from

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

following a bidding war between ten publishing houses.

Life

Larsen was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both his parents were artists. He graduated from

Milton Academy Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered ...

in 1998 and then went on to

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He holds an M.F.A in fiction. He has also made films in the United States, the United Kingdom and the sub-Saharan desert. He currently is living in New York.

Works

Larsen's debut novel, ''The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'', was adapted into a 2013 film entitled '' The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet'' by director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations. Debuting as a di ...

. Larsen has cited

Mark Danielewski Mark Z. Danielewski (; born March 5, 1966) is an American fiction author. He is most widely known for his debut novel ''House of Leaves'' (2000), which won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His second novel, '' Only Revolu ...

W.G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...

and

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

as influences.

Style

Larsen's work incorporates illustrations, diagrams, and footnotes within the text.

Bibliography

*''

'' (2009) * '' I Am Radar'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Reif Living people 1980 births 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Milton Academy alumni Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts