I'm the writer of the historical novel, BRAZIL, and the non-fiction work, RIDING THE RAILS: TEENAGERS ON THE MOVE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Please visit my website: www.erroluys.com

The site has two online literary archives of special interest to booklovers:

WORKING WITH JAMES A. MICHENER: The story behind The Covenant
BRAZIL:The Making of a Novel

I worked with Michener for two years on his South African novel, The Covenant. I was involved from the book's conception, outlined the story with Michener, did the major research and wrote sections of the manuscript. I tell the story of our controversial collaboration drawing on hundreds of items from my personal collection -- From Assignment through Manuscript, the web pages give you a unique look at what goes into the making of a major novel.

I’m the only one of Michener’s assistants ever to go on and write my own epic. On the website, I also share the incredible quest for my novel Brazil, originally a whopping 750,000 handwritten words that took five years to write. -- You can see samples of those pages on the website. -- Originally published by Simon and Schuster in the U.S., Brazil was hailed by overseas critics, especially in Brazil and France where a 20th anniversary edition was published in Fall 2007.

Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression is the unforgettable story of 250,000 teenagers who left their homes and hopped freight trains in the 1930s. Based on 3,000 letters and oral histories and 500 interviews with former boxcar boys and girls, Riding the Rails is a riveting document of hope and hardship on the road in America in one of the nation's bleakest eras.


My shelf on Shelfari is a random selection of works from my office shelves, some new friends, and some old, offered in no particular order. « less