The Josh Ritter song which became a novel

Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter is well-known for his lyric songs. Now he's taken that writing skill and applied it to a longer story for his debut novel "Bright's Passage."
MPR photo/Euan Kerr

Critics describe Josh Ritter as an heir to the musical story-telling tradition of such greats as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Ritter performs at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul tonight with writer Neil Gaiman. It's part of MPR's Wit's series.

Next week he launches a tour to publicize his new novel "Bright's Passage." It's the story of a young man who returns to the U.S. after serving in the trenches in World War I.

Stories have always been a love of his, Ritter said, whether in song or in books. The story told in "Bright's Passage" grew from a song he couldn't fit on his most recent album "So Runs the World Away."

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