O’Nan, Stewart

Setting his latest novel in post-World War II Jerusalem, master storyteller O'Nan (West of Sunset) focuses on the Jewish underground movement during Israel's fight for independence...

O'Nan taps into primary-source material on Fitzgerald to craft a realistic piece of historical fiction, inverting incidents from Sheilah Graham's 1957 tell-all Beloved Infidel to Fitzgerald's point of view and adopting the despairing tone of "The Crack-Up." Fitzgerald comes across as a haunting, multifaceted, sympathetic character whose Midwestern morality leaves him duty-bound to daughter Scottie and his institutionalized wife, Zelda, even as he begins his affair with Graham (which is chastely described). The slide into drugs, alcoholism, and the heart disease that shortened his life is tragic to behold; Fitzgerald fans will mourn his loss all over again. [See Prepub Alert, 7/14/14.]

King's short ghost story features Dean Evers, a retiree who bids New England winters goodbye for a Florida condo...

Art and Marion Fowler are jobless and facing foreclosure, even as their marriage teeters on the brink...

With sympathy and compassion, O'Nan spotlights the plight of aging baby boomers, further enriching our understanding of the human condition. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/10.]

Her husband dead and her neighborhood changing, Emily is indeed alone in this follow-up to O'Nan's best-selling Wish You Were Here...