CRITICAL ACCLAIM

The Sorrow of Archaeology, a novel, University of New Mexico Press

“Russell Martin’s The Sorrow of Archaeology is an intelligent, poetic novel with the complex characterization and layered plotlines of rich literature. . . . a lyrical page-turner with a knack for grappling with the deeper human questions of self-identity, personal history, and physical and emotional brokenness.”
     Rocky Mountain News

“Russell Martin has shaped a beautiful novel filled with grace, love, and wisdom. Digging metaphorically through ruins to create understanding, The Sorrow of Archaeology is a tale that powerfully examines cruelty, decency, dignity, and courage—with emotion that gathers like thunderclouds holding the promise of rain.”
     David Lee, author of Legacy of Shadows, My Town and So Quietly the Earth

“Russell Martin is a masterful storyteller.”
     Bloomsbury Review

Picasso’s War: The Destruction of Guernica, and the Masterpiece That Changed the
World; Dutton, Highbridge Audio, Simon & Schuster UK, and six international editions

“Imaginative cultural historian Martin crafts a well-integrated and fascinating account of Picasso’s famous painting and the horrible events that inspired it. The author’s signature approach to seemingly offbeat subjects is careful research filtered through a novelistic
sensibility to grasp the inherent story, which he unfolds in the engaging, almost offhand manner of a fictional amateur sleuth. Martin is, first and foremost, a consummate storyteller who deftly weaves such multiple disciplines as politics, history, art, science, and even current events into a narrative forming a coherent whole. . . . An engrossing story of a landmark work of art and the struggle “to fashion meaning out of unimaginable evil, once more to offer hope.’”
     Kirkus Reviews

“Martin meticulously describes the painting’s creation and context [and] focuses on the controversies that haunted the canvas for decades. . . . Within this larger narrative, he weaves a memoir of his own trek to visit Guernica, which finally arrived in Spain in the 1980s. The culmination of this thread, when Martin coincidentally views the painting on September 11, 2001, brings the narrative into the contemporary world and highlights Guernica’s brutal relevance today.”
     Publishers Weekly

Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved, published by Broadway Books, and in nineteen international editions

“A wonderfully gripping and readable narrative . . . a fascinating story, full of mysteries solved and as yet unsolved.”
     BBC Music Magazine

“An engrossing tale of an odd subject. First-class history, and a fascinating exposition of forensic science.”
     Toronto Globe and Mail

“An intriguing and well-told story, a story actually of the path Western cultural life has taken over the past two centuries. It reminds us that the spirit of idealism in Beethoven’s music . . . can spark to life in unaccountable ways and in undreamed-of circumstances.”
     Kirkus Reviews

“Russell Martin’s lively account of the investigations into strands of Beethoven’s hair makes for absorbing reading . . . a lucid narrative that takes on the characteristics of a tightly constructed whodunit.”
     Sydney Morning Herald

“A wonderful contemplation of how relics can become bridges between people separated by time, culture and death… an inspiring look at passion in several forms.”
     The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Out of Silence: A Journey into Language, published by Henry Holt

“A deeply moving rendering of human beings in adversity . . . Other accounts of the suffering of autism have been published, but few can vie with this one for thoughtfulness, scholarship, and personal accent.”
     New York Times Book Review

“A wholly remarkable book . . . Martin leaves us with a deeper understanding of language itself, a richer appreciation of its promise, and a realization that the ability to communicate is a kind of grace.”
     The Los Angeles Times

“From time to time a special book is written that changes one’s way of perceiving the self and the world, and that challenges one to rethink what being human really means. Russell Martin has written such a book. . . .  It is a book that should become a classic.”
     Bloomsbury Review

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West, published by Henry Holt

“Russell Martin’s extraordinary tale of what may prove to be the last big American dam ever built is narrative history as good as it gets. But it is more than that, for in his thoughtful, relentlessly fair analysis of the character of the struggle between the conservation community and the dam-builders, Martin reveals some of the unmeasured costs that accrue when the dream of human progress is left in the hands of the engineers and the poetry of the landscape is taken from us.”
     T. H. Watkins

“Martin brings to life the mixed bag of players who, in the fight over Glen Canyon, wrote the very rulebook for the cat-and-mouse game that now incessantly pits the forces of development against the defenders of an ever-shrinking trickle of what used to be America’s
mightiest river. . . . He has done a masterful job.”
     The Chicago Tribune

“This is a crime novel with a body (Glen Canyon), a weapon (the dam), but no simple killer. . . . Read Martin’s fine new book. We have needed such a record of the war between our appetites and our dreams, and now we’ve got it.”
     The Los Angeles Times

Beautiful Islands, a novel; published by Simon & Schuster

“Absolutely spellbinding . . . A book to be savored, to be read slowly, with care and for pleasure.”
     The Denver Post

“What a rare, good thing Russell Martin has given us. Beautiful Islands is a story about decent people involved in matters of consequence, a good read and a fine pleasure.”
     William Kittredge

“Russell Martin knows well the landscape of Colorado and the landscape of the heart. He explores both with graceful precision in this finely crafted novel. Beautiful Islands is tough and strong, intelligent and moving, and always rings true.”
     Robert Mayer

Matters Gray and White: A Neurologist, His Patients & the Mysteries of the Brain, published by Henry Holt

“A book of fascinating insights into modern medical practices and heartening accounts of individual courage. … Martin records with uncommon sensitivity and understanding the clinical work and thoughts or a first-rate physician. … It is excellent.”
     New York Times Book Review

“An honest and moving book that covers a wide swatch and leaves us full of awe.”
     Washington Post Book World

“Compelling… Martin doesn’t merely isolate cases, he weaves them together with the skill of a novelist.”
     The Denver Post

Beautiful Faces, a documentary film 

 “A great documentary . . . Seeing this film is one of the most significant human and spiritual experiences I’ve had in recent years. What pride it gave me in being a doctor, what pride to find work like this in Mexico . . . what pride I found in the hope of these families, and in these children who remind us of the grandeur of the human being created by God.”                                                                                                     Dr. Fernando Lorenzo Rego, Executive Director of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights 

 “It is impossible to describe the complexities of the surgeries they perform or the work they do, but I refer you to the splendid documentary Beautiful Faces . . . Over the years, the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Hospital General Gea Gonzalez—with its professionalism, capacity for innovation, quality, and compassion—has become a national and international reference point, the quiet pride of Mexico.”                                                                                                                                                                                                           Federico Reyes Heroles, Reforma, Mexico City  

Two Spirits, a documentary film 

“Riveting.”
     LA Weekly

“A gorgeous, moving, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting story, the kind of film that opens the mind and heart so wide they can never close as tightly again.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Martha Beck, Oprah magazine columnist and bestselling author 

“Two Spirits is a beautiful film, one that poignantly conveys the pain that Paula Mitchell suffered when she lost her child to hate violence. Fred Martinez was murdered simply because he dared to be himself, and the violence against young people like him must stop. We will never be the society we hope to be until we replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance. This very powerful film is an important step on that journey.”                                                                                                                                                                Judy Shepard, President of The Matthew Shepard Foundation