sentences:  Smirnoff, a native of Mill Valley, California, a suburb of San Francisco, arrived in Oxford after his BMW sedan broke down in the midst of a cross-country excursion in late 1987.While waiting for the car to be repaired, he secured a job at the independent Oxford bookstore Square Books.At the bookstore, he met writers who passed through on author tours and local authors like John Grisham, Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and Willie Morris.