David Rhodes is the author of Painting Beyond Walls. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him paraplegic. He continued writing, but did not publish again until 2008, with his celebrated novel, Driftless. Several years later, a sequel, Jewelweed, was published to wide acclaim. After another decade, he returns to American letters with this extraordinary novel, his first to be set in the future. David Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in Iowa City.