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Greater Miami, Florida is the southernmost metropolitan region in the contiguous 48 states. The late-20th century development of Southern Florida was driven largely by Caribbean immigration, retiree inundation and "Spring Break!". As a result it feels cut off from the rest of The South.
     Iron and Wine, the recorded Word of one Samuel Beam, Miami, Florida; is one of those one-guy-and-his-tapedeck affairs. Taken as a whole, The Creek Drank the Cradle, Iron and Wine's debut CD, is an ode to an older South; a part of America that is defined by "traditional values," pastoral imagery and arcane manners. Or maybe that's just what I want to hear. You'll soon be the judge.
     What I can tell you without a moment's doubt or hesitation is that Iron and Wine create the most arresting and seductive music that I've heard in years. Sub Pop heard about Iron and Wine by way of Yeti, a magazine published in Seattle, whose initial run came with an accompanying compilation CD featuring an Iron and Wine song. Mike McGonigal, Editor of Yeti, was introduced to Iron and Wine by way of Ben Bridwell, Brown Records label-owner and onetime drummer for Seattle's beloved, Carissa's Wierd. Ben has known Sam Beam since childhood.
     After dutifully pestering Sam for months, we received two CDs full of material. The original idea was to simply release both CDs as they were. There are, after all, many, many more great songs beyond what's featured on The Creek Drank the Cradle. But in the name of editorial restraint and earning one's keep, we at Sub Pop, with Sam's assistance, decided to pick nearly a dozen songs that fit together well. The Creek Drank the Cradle is the result.
   This CD was written, recorded and performed by Samuel Beam.

- Jonathan Poneman, June 2002

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A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love.

Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years.

When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico -- supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.

This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.

"Through all its dark and delightful twists and turns . . . This artful and elegant novel may be Auster's best ever." --Peter Carey

"An enthralling new summit in Paul Auster's art." --Jonathan Lethem

"One of our most inventive and least predictable authors." --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

"A literary original who is perfecting a genre of his own." --Richard Locke, The Wall Street Journal

"Paul Auster has been an unswerving voice no matter what form he chooses, no matter what tale he imagines . . ." --Michael Ondaatje

Paul Auster's most recent novel, Timbuktu, was a national bestseller, as was I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Book of Illusions is his tenth novel.