Russell Banks

Novelist Russell Banks and Canadian Film Director Atom Egoyan discuss their new film “The Sweet Hereafter”. The film is adapted from Banks’ 1991 novel. It’s the story of how a small town deals with a tragic school bus crash. Banks has written 12 novels which include: “Affliction,” “Rule of the Bone,” “Searching for Survivors,” “The Book of Jamaica,” and “Continental Drift.” Egoyan is best known for “Exotica” a film that won the International Critics Prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Banks' new novel is Rule of the Bone. It's been compared to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because of it's young first-person narrator, and use of comedy to convey grim realities. Bank's narrator is 14 year-old Chappie from upstate New York who wears a nose ring and Mohawk. He steals from his parents to pay for dope, is kicked out of the house, and sets off on a low-life adventure.

Novelist Russell Banks. In his new novel, "The Sweet Hereafter," Banks explores the aftermath of one of those tragedies that occasionally appear in the news and then quickly fade away. Banks' story revolves around a school bus crash that kills 14 children in a rural New York town. (It's published by Harper Collins). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)