His characters are often described as "morally complex"...

Russell Banks is an award winning and best selling writer of novels, poetry and short stories...including Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, and Cloudsplitter. His work has been translated into twenty different languages, and two of his novels -- Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter -- have been made into feature films. Banks is known for writing with empathy about characters many might avoid...he talks about that in a discussion of his newest novel, Lost Memory of Skin, with Evan Smith...8pm