From award-winning writer · Open Books
Two brothers. One mother. One very big question.
Two days before her death, Jenny Elliot suggests to her fifty-year-old son Phillip that, being half Irish, he should be more careful about his drinking. Phillip, along with his brother Spencer, has grown up believing they were the fully Jewish-American offspring of Jenny and her late husband who died in the Vietnam War. Was his mother uttering some dementia-inspired fantasy, or was her true character shining through in her last moments to leave the brothers a clue to their real heritage? After her death, Phillip decides to take a DNA test.
The brothers set off on a genetic treasure hunt in search of who they really are—and what that might mean. Are they purely products of their genetics; or were they formed more completely by their social interactions and upbringing? Are they merely victims of randomness; or are they some combination of those factors? And who, exactly, is Mr. Wizard?
Books by Jeff Wallach
Three books. One author. A whole life on the page.
Two literary novels and a cult-favorite collection of golf travel essays. Start anywhere.
Mr. Wizard
A genetic treasure hunt that sends two middle-aged brothers from Long Island to the west coast of Ireland.
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Everyone Here Is From Somewhere Else
A stand-alone sequel and prequel to Mr. Wizard, spanning 1950s Brooklyn, present-day Portland, OR, and the fictional Irish town of Ballydriocht.
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Driven to Extremes
Uncommon tales from golf's unmanicured terrain — a python on the first tee, the Midnight Sun in Fairbanks, the ancient links of Scotland.
Read more →Advance praise
"The writing is knowing and engaging, wise about its cultural orientations, and driven to discoveries both reassuring and life-enhancing."
Michael Curtis Fiction Editor Emeritus, The Atlantic"A hilarious and witty novel — a book that asks, with real generosity, what makes us who we are."
Robert K. Brigham Historian, Vassar College"Captures the mystical, bonding qualities of golf — and the mysteries of the human heart."
Robert Trent Jones Jr. Golf course architect"Twists and turns like a double helix."
Terri Cheney NYT bestselling authorMeet Jeff
Nearly a thousand bylines. 7 books including two novels.
Jeff Wallach is an award-winning journalist who's spent four decades filing nearly a thousand articles, essays, and columns for a long list of magazines that people actually read — The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Men's Journal, GOLF Magazine, Golf Digest, Outside, and Men's Health among them.
He holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Brown University and a BA in English from Vassar College. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he plays soccer, and claims to have "a good short game for a journalist."
Read the full bioFrom the archives
Sports, travel, food, and all manner of things.
A few highlights from nearly forty years of crafting original stories.
Golf Helps Save a Marine
"A driving downpour at Old Head Golf Links soaked through Tim Lang's rain suit, blew in his face as he lined up daunting shots along cliffs above the gray Atlantic..."
Read at NYT →From a Middling Infielder to a Kindred Spirit
"There was a time not so long ago when young sports fans wrote actual letters to their heroes and sometimes received a photo or even a note or letter in return..."
Read at NYT →Flocking to the Sheep Ranch
"It's a fine day on the southern Oregon coast — warm and clear, with a nip of salt on the breeze blowing in off the Pacific. I'm in the car with my new friend Al Greenfield..."
Read the full piece →Pour the whiskey. Open the book.
Mr. Wizard is the kind of novel a reader finishes in one sitting and immediately wants to talk about — over a single malt, on the back nine, or on the long flight to Shannon.
Read Mr. Wizard — $19.95 Also on Amazon · Kindle Unlimited · Paperback ships in 2–3 days