American Trickster

“Marshall reveals in this detailed, well-documented, and revelatory biography, early suspicions … that Castaneda’s writings are mostly, if not entirely, fictional.”—Booklist

“A stunning, genre-stretching biography. Marshall’s philosophical acuity, honest self-examination, and edgy style make this book a fascinating quest narrative.”—Carol Sklenicka, author of Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life

“Necessary and groundbreaking. Marshall paints a devastating portrait of the spiritual leader’s genuine allure, and the febrile cultural landscape of the sixties that proved such a fertile ground for his fabrications.” —Ranbir Sidhu, author of Deep Singh Blue and Good Indian Girls

“Through exhaustive research, incisive analysis, and bravura storytelling, Ru Marshall reveals the true story of one of the 20th century’s most mysterious figures, and in so doing, reinvigorates and expands the biography genre.”—Matthew Sharpe, author of Jamestown and The Sleeping Father

“Anyone who wants to understand how charisma, cults and today’s politics work, should read this. It gives us the vocabulary we need to comprehend what’s going on in our divided country while showing us how vulnerable we all are to seduction.” —Helen Benedict, author of A Map of Hope and Sorrow and Wolf Season

“Marshall reaches deep into philosophy, film, history and anthropology to examine Castaneda’s sinister legacy. Spooky, mercurial, power-hungry, and dangerous—what is certain about Castaneda? He was short. Even Marshall’s footnotes are witty.”—Terese Svoboda, author Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge

“Certain writers leave their music in your head, and it stays. If Ru’s voice went to a bar, it would order a Negroni with gin and talk to the bartender about their day. Everyone in the bar would drift over, and everyone at the bar would think Ru was speaking directly to them. They would be. That is the illusion that narrative produces when it is intimate and in love with the comedy and sexiness of uncertainty. Uncertainty about knowing the self, the outer world, and the sources of human pain. Uncertainty is the lab where all art experiments are staged, and Ru Marshall is a master storyteller who will keep seducing you with language.”—Laurie Stone, who writes the Substack publication Everything is Personal

“Ru Marshall’s biography is exhaustive, yet often a page-turner, taking us far and deep into the alternate universe that Casteneda created. Fascinating.”—Christopher L. Miller

“An engrossing expose of a con man who began his sinister career by pulling off one of the great publishing hoaxes of the 20th century … a genre-defying cautionary tale.”—Don Lattin

“A triumph: With ferocious insight, wit, and compassion. American Trickster is thrillingly researched, brilliantly argued, written with verve, and impossible to put down.”—Lisa Cohen

Ru Marshall’s novel, A Separate Reality, was released by Carroll & Graf in 2006 and was nominated for a Lambda Award for debut fiction. Their writing has appeared in Salon, N + 1 online, The Evergreen Review, The Kenyon Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Waxwing, The Barcelona Review, Your Impossible Voice, Another Chicago Magazine, and many other publications. They have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the 2016 Hazel Rowley Prize from BIO, the Biographers International Organization. Their visual work has been exhibited at Participant Inc., Jennifer Baahng Gallery, Studio 10 Gallery, Art in General, White Columns, Baxter Street, Cathouse Proper, and numerous other venues. They have received grants and fellowships from Macdowell, Yaddo, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.