The Boy on the TrainMar 2026 · Books
A seventeen-year-old boy sits opposite a man on a train. No weapon is drawn. No threat is made. Yet by the time Tom Snelling reaches his destination, he has chosen his victim — and…
Read more →
I'm drawn to the places we don't look — the endangered, the sacred, the buried in ourselves. Fiction or fact, the work is the same: go in, bring up what's there, come back changed. I'd like to take you with me.
Into the books →The living world
View all books →The buried
View all books →The sacred
View all books →About Martin
He sat down to become a writer at twelve, and has spent the decades since going where others won't look — into altered states, sacred extremity, vanishing worlds, and the buried and unspeakable. Fourteen books, one restless method.
Read more →
Writing
View all writing →
The Bishnoi temple at LohawatFeb 2025 · Bishnoi
A ‘miracle’ story about Guru Jambhoji (The setting: Lohawat is a village in the Thar Desert northwest of the city of Jodhpur. Businesses that line the road, such as a garage and motorcycle sales…
Read more →
Letters from CruisingFeb 2025 · Books
“A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted. A complicated young man embarked on a romantic adventure and diving into deeper water than he can safely navigate. A…
Read more →Praise
"Such narrow, narrow confines we live in… We wait for his letters home."
— The Los Angeles Times
"Sensitive and engaging … I hope everybody reads it."
— Brian Eno, on My Head for a Tree
Bulletins from the Far Side of Life
Martin's Substack — occasional dispatches, essays and news.
Read on Substack →