2024 Writers’ League of Texas Discovery Prize Winner
★
2024 Writers’ League of Texas Discovery Prize Winner ★
From the Author: Hank O'Sullivan, a sixty-five-year-old widower, lives a routine life, nursing his loneliness with cocktails at his favorite local bar in Austin, Texas. After a parking lot brawl lands him in jail, a judge sentences Hank to community service, picking up trash along the highway alongside a sixteen-year-old troublemaker, Luis Delgado. Luis has remarkable artistic abilities, but his penchant for sneaking out late at night and trespassing onto rooftops lands him on the same road crew as Hank. These loners form an unlikely friendship, and when Hank tells Luis about his desire to drive to Houston to reconnect with an old flame, Luis asks to tag along. Luis's estranged mother lives in Houston, and he has been dreaming of a reunion. Hank agrees to take Luis with him, setting in motion a raucous trip in a hot pink 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. With humor and a bit of grace, The Codger and the Sparrow is a touching story about an unusual friendship that stretches across generations.
Our Take: Scott Semegran delivers a heartfelt and funny road story that pairs the wisdom (and stubbornness) of age with the reckless spark of youth. The Codger and the Sparrow is less about the miles covered between Austin and Houston, and more about the unexpected bond forged between two loners who discover they need each other more than they realize. With his trademark wit and warmth, Semegran turns a hot pink Barracuda into a vessel of redemption, friendship, and second chances. Perfect for readers who love character-driven tales of unlikely companions, this novel reminds us that it’s never too late—or too early—to find connection, laughter, and meaning in the journey.
““Scott Semegran’s The Codger and the Sparrow is a wondrous novel of the road, where two unlikely people seek out the larger world, and in their uncertainty, help each other navigate the way toward something like home. Told with such an abundance of both humor and tenderness, this is a novel of discovery, of searching for answers, and I could not think of two people I’d rather ride alongside than Hank and Luis.””
Rave Reviews:
"The Codger and The Sparrow is delicious fun. A story told with an abundance of surprise and humor; I loved the characters, the snappy dialogue, and hitting the road in the pink Barracuda. Scott Semegran is one hell of a writer, and this is a terrific novel."
- Annie Hartnett, author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals
"Semegran deftly blends humor with heart in a road trip romp that crosses generational divides. A coming-of-age for one, a coming-to-terms for the other, Semegran's characters are deeply drawn in a way that envelops readers from the start of their journey to its unexpected end. The Codger and the Sparrow is a fun, fresh meditation on friendship, loss, and new beginnings."
- James Wade, Spur Award-winning author of All Things Left Wild and River, Sing Out
"Scott Semegran's characters capture the essential human contradiction: that deep flaws and bad decisions exist right alongside our beautiful capacity for kindness and compassion. With equal parts heart and humor, The Codger and the Sparrow is an ode to the strange, messy, and transformative power of friendship."
- Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas
"The Codger and the Sparrow marks a leap forward in Scott Semegran's already impressive narrative artistry. Semegran brings to mind Hemingway's dictum that we are stronger in our broken places, as he brings us inside two very different characters—an aging, irascible widower and an artistically gifted orphan—and shows them coming together in a compelling story of grief and renewal."
- Thomas H. McNeely, award-winning author of Pictures of the Shark and Ghost Horse