Success has followed a string of coincidences for New York Times bestselling author, James Grippando, this year.
A professor at the University of Miami and resident of Coral Gables, Grippando will be releasing his new novel, The Girl in the Glass Box, the latest in the Jack Swyteck series, this month. He will be signing copies of the novel at Books & Books on Friday, Feb. 8.
This installment in the Jack Swyteck series marks the 15th book in the series. It tells the story of how Jack Swyteck helps a beautiful mother and her daughter as they encounter trouble in Miami after fleeing a life filled with domestic violence in their native El Salvador. The story coincidentally is one that most people can be discussing in a time when the debate over asylum seekers and immigration reform have grabbed the national spotlight.
“I had no idea that this story was going to be as timely as it turned out to be when I wrote it,” he said.
He simply wanted to tell the story of a woman fleeing her country with her daughter in search of a better life. This just seems to be a coincidence.
This year marks his 25th wedding anniversary and the 25th year of the publication of his first Swyteck novel, The Pardon. This is another interesting coincidence.
His career thus far has been a very successful one. He finds time to balance his work as a professor with writing, and he still manages to practice law.
“You can do it all; you just can’t do it all at once,” he jokes.
When Grippando is under contract to write a book, he makes sure that the firm does not approach him for any legal work. He normally knows 10 months in advance when he will be teaching at the University of Miami so he does not overcommit.
He loves what he does and it is evident from the way that he describes it all. He has been writing since he was a small child.
While he was a lawyer, he still wrote, publishing many articles in legal periodicals like Fordham Law Review and the University of Miami Law Review. He wisely chose to write about his work as a trial lawyer working with death row inmates. That inspired The Pardon, the first book in the Swyteck series.
“Jack firmly believes that this man is innocent and his father, the Governor of Florida, thinks that he’s being naïve,” Grippando said.
That sort of conflict between his characters is what make his novels click. He makes this clear.
“Whenever I go to schools and talk to children and they ask me what the books are about I always say they’re about relationships,” he said.
Grippando said that in The Pardon it was about Jack and his father.
In The Girl in the Glass Box, the relationship between people is stretched to reveal “what you’re willing to do for someone else out of love, the sacrifices you’re willing to make and the risks you’re willing to take,“ he said.
The story is about Jack Swyteck and how he helps Julia and her teen-aged daughter Beatriz. Julia and Beatriz flee an abusive relationship in El Salvador and arrive in Miami. She is struggling to eke out an existence when an anonymous tip to immigration follows her refusal of an unwanted sexual advance. She could be sent back to a place that holds nothing but death and violence for her and Beatriz. The only option that Swyteck has for her is to get her asylum. Can it be done?
Grippando is on Facebook and his book can be purchased on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. As mentioned earlier, he will be signing copies of The Girl in the Glass Box at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave. in Coral Gables, on Feb. 8.
