First published 2018
On a snowy night in 2006 outside Krakow, American journalist Richard Brennan's life shatters when a car accident kills his wife and daughter. The crash also destroys Bogdan Baranowski, the Polish small businessman whose vehicle struck them. What began as a tragic mistake sends both men spiraling into separate hells. Richard carries his grief back to the United States, while Bogdan watches his business collapse, his marriage crumble, and his life unravel. Over the next decade, their paths wind through California and the Hudson Valley before returning to Poland. Richard navigates a changing media landscape as print journalism dies around him. Bogdan slides from legitimate business into petty crime. Both men struggle with guilt and loss as political upheaval rocks America and Eastern Europe. The story follows ordinary people learning to survive extraordinary grief while the world shifts beneath their feet.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: ordinary-people, separate-hells
Setting: California, Krakow, Poland, United States
Period: 2006, Decade
384 pages · Paperback · Unbridled Books