First published 1999
Dan Silas steps off the plane in Michigan after three decades away. The former advertising executive has left his London career behind to attend his high school reunion. He expects awkward small talk and faded memories. Instead, he discovers his old friend now believes he carries the soul of a Shawnee warrior. His former girlfriend drops an even bigger bombshell. She insists Dan fathered one of her children during their teenage romance. Dan must navigate these shocking claims while confronting the gap between his polished English present and his American past. The reunion becomes a reckoning with identity, friendship, and the stories people tell themselves to make sense of their lives. Cartwright explores how the past refuses to stay buried and how middle age forces uncomfortable truths to the surface.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, reckoning
Setting: Michigan, London
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
246 pages · Hardcover · Carroll & Graf Pub