James Hynes

James Hynes is an American novelist whose fiction ranges from political drama and contemporary literary satire to horror and historical fiction. A native of Michigan, he studied at the University of Michigan and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught creative writing at several universities, including Iowa, Michigan and the University of Texas. His earlier books include The Wild Colonial Boy, a novel concerning political violence in Northern Ireland; Publish and Perish, The Lecturer’s Tale and Kings of Infinite Space, which combine academic or workplace satire with supernatural horror; and the contemporary novel Next.

Hynes’s principal historical novels are Sparrow and its sequel, Peacock. Sparrow is set in the declining Roman Empire and follows an enslaved boy raised among the women of a brothel in New Carthage, exploring slavery, identity, friendship and the struggle for freedom. Peacock continues Sparrow’s life as he enters an aristocratic Roman household and learns to negotiate its rivalries, desires and political intrigues while Christianity becomes an increasingly powerful force within the empire. These two novels form Hynes’s main contribution to historical fiction; his earlier works are predominantly contemporary, satirical or speculative rather than historical novels.