Author

Joe Mraz

Writer of grounded speculative fiction. THE 26TH SONG is his debut novel.

Books

THE 26TH SONG cover

THE 26TH SONG

Twenty-five songs play. The twenty-sixth is corrupted. A father crosses a ruined country carrying his daughter's phone—and protecting the girl whose voice may be the only thing capable of reaching the machines hunting what remains of humanity.

Read More →
In the Works

Death of God

A grieving novelist is told the Second Coming is real, and that the man responsible for his wife's death holds the key to saving everyone else. Five years in a locked ward later, he breaks out to face a weapon that grieves like a mother—and a debt only he can forgive.

Read More →

About

Joe Mraz

Some songs hand me a scene before I've done anything to earn it. THE 26TH SONG grew out of that: the idea that a piece of music can hold something a person can't say out loud.

The rest comes from watching strangers. In an airport lounge once, waiting on a flight to Rome, I noticed an older woman's hands shake when she lifted her coffee cup. I never learned her name. She's Felipe's wife now, seen entirely through his eyes. Most of what I write starts that small: a tick, a gesture, a stranger I'll never see again who becomes someone's whole world.

THE 26TH SONG is my first novel. Death of God is next. I live and write in New Jersey.