About Mark Beyer

Mark Beyer was born and raised in the Chicago area. He wrote his first story at the age of five, which he called "The Giant Eye" and to which he added an illustration: a full-page size bloodshot eye with bat-like wings and the legs of an ostrich. From that time onward, his imagination grew. 

In September 2010, he released his first novel, THE VILLAGE WIT. In 2012 his second novel was published, WHAT BEAUTY, a story of art, ego, and love. His third novel, MAX, THE BLIND GUY, is the story of a 40-year marriage. In September 2020, his newest novel, THE JANITOR: Or, DOSTOEVSKY IN AMERICA, was published.

I write realistic fiction about men and women. Their relationships are the plot, but their characters are the story. All of these (and more) create what's otherwise called The Traditional Novel. These stories are long reads; sometimes they are dark stories. They are always sophisticated fiction inside complicated stories. This is ... fiction that stirs your imagination, your prejudices, your passion for the opposite sex.

One reviewer has written “Max, the blind guy brings to mind the work of his literary predecessors such as Nabokov, Marquez, Dickens, and Dostoevsky. Good company. Good reading." Another reader has said Beyer's prose writing is "like reading a classic."

He now makes his home in Europe alongside his wife, Asia Szustek.