Paul Cody

Background

Paul Cody was born on December 23, 1953, in Newton, MA, in the family of John E. and Margaret (maiden name, Christie) Cody.

Achievements

• Paul Cody wrote famous novels The Stolen Child, Eyes like Mine, and The Thing He Did. He is also a contributor to numerous periodicals, including the Boston Globe Harper’s, The Quarterly, and Wind.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Shooting the Heart

    (A chilling, unforgettable literary novel by the author of...)

    2004
  • So Far Gone: A Novel

    (Soon to be executed for murdering his parents and grandmo...)

    1998
  • The Stolen Child: A Novel

    (The story of a child-abductor named Ellis, once a boy nam...)

    1995
  • The Last Next Time: a memoir 2013
  • Eyes Like Mine 1995
  • Eyes Like Mine 2017

Religion

Interested in Catholicism and Buddhism; practice neither.

Politics

Describes himself as “mostly Democrat.”

Views

Quotations: "I've been writing since I was a child, I guess because I've always loved to read, and writing words on paper gave me the feeling that I could think about, shape, and in some sense influence my experience of the world by writing it down. And then in 1971–72, when I was eighteen years old, I became an alcoholic and drug addict. I spent seven years in and out of mental hospitals and detoxes, until I was finally taken by the police to Medfield State Hospital, southwest of Boston, in the summer of 1978. I was committed by a judge to thirty days in a locked ward and then spent a short time in a residential drug treatment program, where all the residents except me were there on pre-release status from state and federal prisons. I've been straight and sober, and writing steadily, since then.

This has always been the single biggest influence on my work, and I'm probably drawn to my subjects—abducted and lost children, religious and drug-induced ecstasy, crime, marginality, insanity—because I'm trying on different levels to figure out why my life went so wrong and then so right. In a way, writing about darkness gives me the chance to visit the demons, and then find what I hope is light and redemption again and again. It's a way to participate in the mystery of life without going to church."

Interests

• Journalism, sports, editing, history, crime, and mental illness

Connections

On September 26, 1987, Paul married Elizabeth Holmes, and they had children Liam Scott and Austin James.

Father:

John E. Cody

Mother:

Margaret (Christie) Cody

Wife:

Elizabeth Holmes

Son:

Liam Scott

Son:

Austin James