When he was dry, he believed it was alcohol he needed, but when he had a few drinks in him, he knew it was something else, possibly a woman; and when he had it all -- cash, booze, and a wife -- he couldn't be distracted from the great emptiness that was always falling through him and never hit the ground.

S. National Book Award for Fiction. Biography
Johnson was born in 1949 in Munich West Germany.

National Book Award for Fiction. Denis Hale Johnson (born 1949) is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son (1992) and his novel Tree of Smoke (2007) which won the U. He also writes plays poetry and non-fiction.