TJ Klune

Author

TJ Klune is an American author whose warm, imaginative, and deeply emotional fantasy novels have earned him a devoted global readership and critical acclaim. His writing is celebrated for its themes of found family, belonging, and the transformative power of love — stories that are at once fantastical and profoundly human. Born in 1982... and raised in rural Oregon, Klune worked as a social worker for many years, an experience that has deeply influenced his fiction's compassion for outsiders, misfits, and people who have been told they don't belong. He initially published in the LGBTQ+ romance genre before breaking through to mainstream fantasy. The House in the Cerulean Sea, published in 2020, was his breakthrough novel and a sensation. The story follows Linus Baker, a by-the-book caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, who is sent to evaluate an orphanage on a remote island run by the enigmatic Arthur Parnassus. There, he finds a group of magical children — including the Antichrist — and discovers that the things that make us different are often the things that make us extraordinary. The novel won the Alex Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a New York Times bestseller. It is one of those rare books that leaves readers feeling genuinely happier for having read it. Under the Whispering Door (2021), about a man who dies and finds himself at a way station between life and the afterlife, continued the themes of connection and acceptance. In the Lives of Puppets (2023), a retelling of Pinocchio set in a post-apocalyptic world, and The Bones Beneath My Skin, a science fiction romance, further demonstrated Klune's range. His writing has been compared to Terry Pratchett for its warmth and humour and to Becky Chambers for its gentle, hopeful approach to speculative fiction. Klune's books are stories about kindness, and in a literary landscape that often prizes darkness, his work stands out as a beacon of hope. The audiobook editions of Klune's novels have been widely praised, with narrators capturing the warmth and emotional depth of his storytelling. The House in the Cerulean Sea audiobook in particular has found a massive listening audience. TJ Klune lives in the Pacific Northwest. His books and audiobooks are essential for anyone who wants fantasy that fills the heart as much as it fires the imagination. Read more Show less