First published 2013
A celebrated author faces his father's final days, watching the stubborn old man refuse to surrender quietly to death. The writer navigates the complex terrain of family duty while grappling with his own mortality and artistic purpose. In another story, a young Indian boy discovers the weight of existence by witnessing how others meet their end, learning to treasure his own days through these encounters with loss. The collection moves between fathers and sons, examining how men confront pivotal moments that reshape their understanding of themselves. Characters wrestle with addiction, creative ambition, and the pull of memory. Abraham Lincoln's legacy gets reexamined through a Native American lens, while a child's faith crumbles when an invisible dog on a leash reveals itself as elaborate pretense. The book mourns vanished technologies like mixtapes and payphones, finding tenderness in obsolete connections. These interconnected pieces explore how love and betrayal interweave, how art emerges from pain, and how ordinary people stand at crossroads that will define the rest of their lives.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fathers-and-sons, grief, loss
Period: 21st Century
210 pages · Kindle Edition · Open Road Media
Content warnings: death