Association chose The Night Birds as an “Outstanding Book for the College Bound.” Little Wolves, his second novel, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and won the All Iowa Reads selection in 2014. He teaches at Normandale Community College and lives in the Twin Cities area with his wife, a Lutheran pastor, and his three daughters. His third novel, The Land, was published in October, 2020.
Maltman applied the Page 69 Test to his fourth novel, Ashes to Ashes, and reported the following:
Here’s page sixty-nine in the entirety:Learn more about the book and author at Thomas Maltman's website.Chapter NineIf readers turned to page sixty-nine of my book, would they know what it’s about? Absolutely. Turn to that page and you’ll meet the central protagonist, Basil Thorson, who has just caused a terrible injury to another boy during a wrestling match. You’ll meet his wounded father, whose health Basil fears for. You’ll glimpse how this story takes place in a rural area with many of the characters either farming or living on farms. Does it capture the story entirely? No.
At home, beef stroganoff steams in the cast-iron skillet and the rich, creamy aroma fills the farmhouse kitchen. His father’s hands tremble as he carries the hot skillet over to the table. He looks better in this golden hour, his eyes clear instead of bloodshot. Even though he’s shaved and cleaned himself up, a light down of perspiration clings to his upper lip.
“Happy belated,” his father says. “I’m sorry I fell asleep early last night.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Basil says. Beef stroganoff is one of his favorite dinners, but he hesitates before joining them at the table.
“Cows tried to get out again,” Davy says.
“It’s that old heifer with the bent ear,” his dad says as he pulls back a chair. “She’s trouble. But Davy spotted them in time.”
Basil stands there, uncertain how to explain himself.
“What’s wrong?” his dad asks, reading his face.
“I hurt a kid today.” There’s no easy way to say it. “Broke his arm.”
“Ah no,” his father says.
“I meant to hurt him, Dad. And I feel terrible about it.”
His father takes this in as he sits, his gaze steady on Basil. “You quit, didn’t you?”
Basil nods, unable to say any more.
There’s so much more to Ashes to Ashes, which includes magical realism. The people of the town of Andwen are marked with ashes during an Ash Wednesday service that mysteriously won’t wash away. There’s magical realism and a stone bearing strange markings that speaks of a journey by Vikings deep into American territory, a hundred years before Columbus.
The page sixty-nine test doesn’t capture these things, but it does get to the beating heart of the story.
The Page 69 Test: Little Wolves.
Writers Read: Thomas Maltman (February 2013).
--Marshal Zeringue