“On a wintry morning, in the remote Adirondack town of Wedeskyull, New York, Nora Hamilton wakes to find her life utterly changed: her rock-solid policeman husband has committed suicide. The life that Nora has grown to know and love in her husband’s peaceful hometown is gone. And almost immediately, the pieces don’t add up: solid as an oak Brendan was prescribed sedatives a week earlier, an odd local mechanic tells Nora strange stories about her husband’s past, Brendan’s coworkers on the police force are keeping an eye on her, as is a genial local reporter, hot on the trail of an explosive expose. Relying on the methodical nature that serves her so well as a restorer of old homes, Nora struggles to understand what happened to her husband — even as this insular, frigid mountain town is determined to keep its deadly secrets buried.”–Publisher
“The city is a strange place for Jozef. After living in a Polish village for much of his life, he is struggling to adjust to the tall, grey landscape of apartment living, and his job in a local deli serving french fries and fried chicken to brash, self-assured children makes him feel even more disconnected from the surrounding population. It is only when he encounters TC, a troubled boy running away from school, that Jozef finds a kindred spirit with whom he can share his fascination with the natural world.
The two are noticed in a small litter-strewn park by a friendly local, the elderly and recently widowed Sophia, who has been attempting to spark an interest in nature in her granddaughter, Daisy. While Sophia sends Daisy letters each week about the growth of the flowers in the park, Jozef attempts to extract, over games of chess, the details of TC’s troubled home life-left broken by the departure of the boy’s father. Like leaves twisting in the wind, the lives of these four figures are blown together, defying the gravity affecting the world around them. That is, until the pressures of modern life intervene.”–Publisher
Good Kids : a novel by
Benjamin Nugent (M) “At fifteen, Josh Paquette and Khadijah Silverglate-Dunn catch Josh’s father and Khad ijah’s mother kissing in a natural foods store. As both of their families fall apart, the teenagers sign a pact never to cheat on anyone, ever. They have no problem keeping the vow – until they meet again at twentyeight, both struggling with career and identit y, and both engaged to other people. Acclaimed author Benjamin Nugent’s fiction debut is a hilarious, sad, handsomely plotted story of love and class. Stylistically adventurous but always accessible, Nugent trains a keen ear on the vernaculars of Generation Y and the baby boomers, as the young and middle-aged try to decide what parenting, background, and loyalty mean in an America struggling to redefine virtue.”–Publisher