This elegant novella is a comedy and a parable about a failed writer, a man with an appetite for melancholy, who finds success through his relationship with a Latinahousekeeper and her son.

Old-Timer

Literature & Fiction

Christopher Brookhouse

United States

John F Blair Pub

The three stories in this collection explore reticence and desire. ''Unless Alex'' takes place on Valentine's Day years after the narrator has fallen in love with Alex Alexandra ''Alex'' Kellogg. As the day passes, the narrator unfolds the story of their lives, from the autumn when Alex first kissed him and the summer when he turned away from the invitation of her nakedness to the years they have lived separate but connected lives. At the end of the evening, when Alex offers another invitation, the narrator knows that if he accepts he may lose her forever.In ''Affliction'' reticence gives way to desire: Tony for Meredith, daughter of wealthy, self-absorbed Talbot Breed; Talbot for Janet, a painter whose art depicts the present but predicts the future; Crystal, one of Janet's subjects, for Janet; and Dr. Abernathy, a retired physician, for Meredith. As one might expect in a story suggested by Gabriel GarciÂa Marquez, there exists a sensuous psychological and tactile realism, mystery inspired by beauty. ''Loving Ryan'' is a complicated story of crime and spying told through the perspectives of several participants: Ryan, an American hired by the president of a Caribbean island nation to tutor his daughter, Isabel; Yvonne, Ryan's mother; Hugo, Isabel's father; Julia Katia, Hugo's wife; Chloe, Julia Katia's ally in forcing Hugo into exile; and the charming and precocious Isabel, who falls in love with Ryan. In exile, Ryan, the reticent tutor, becomes Hugo's devoted companion and caretaker.

Loving Ryan

Contemporary

Safe Harbor Books

a novel by Christopher Brookhouse 122 pages, $12. 95 Summer. 1960. Finn grew up in the South. He should have known when the school he worked for admitted a student of color there would be trouble. He should have known not to have an Indian for a friend. He should have known not to get involved with Annabel Spier. But he could not have known what he comes to know: how the secrets of the past shake loose one by one, and what he thought he knew he did not know.

Finn (Southern Crime)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Percy's Field

"In this final installment of the Gus Salt series, the sheriff of Harr County, North Carolina meets up again with the scofflaw Hunt brother as he searches for the identity of a burned body and the whereabouts of a missing woman, who seems connected to tragic events far beyond Harr Countys borders. Its a cold and gloomy January, no solace for Gus in his own personal winter of discontent"--

A Mind of Winter

In her private memoir, Theresa Alston Crandall reflects on family secrets she has held for forty years. Her duplicity has created a life of uneven rewards as she begins to hear footsteps from the past sneaking up on her. Is it too late to start over? Revealing the truth of her missteps would shatter the present and demand answers to painful questions. She has betrayed her husband and sons, causing them to be unsuspecting players in her orchestrated deception. Theresa spends time at Whimsy Towers, the oceanfront home she inherited from a grandmother she never knew. Poetry, parties, good food, and gratitude fill the summer days, allowing Theresa to maintain a careful charade. Whimsy Towers holds her secrets, until her safety from exposure gradually unravels. The mysterious death of her son requires Theresa to confront a host of unresolved problems, a twisted accumulation of love and lies. From Cape Cod to Alexandria, Virginia, and St. Michaels, Maryland, new relationships develop.

A Pinch of Salt

Days before her high school graduation, Nicki Groh runs away from the New Hampshire town where she has grown up. In the months that follow, Nicki will find her way back home, a young woman much changed from her earlier self. Harriet Groh, Nicki's adoptive mother, is the person most affected by Nicki's absence. Much of the story is told by her, and much of the story is about her, how she "disappears," too, from an earlier self and discovers her own voice, even if silence is the language in which she finds it. Harriet's voice continues the tradition of female voices that Mr. Brookhouse began in Running Out, his first novel, which Anthony Burgess called "A triumph of poetic economy and a powerful evocation of place." He continued this voice with A Selfish Woman. Silence once again displays Brookhouse's elegant, economical prose. Silence is a deepening narrative about the roles we play, how we fit into them, how we choose them, or how they choose us. The novel is structured around earth, air, fire, and water-essential elements of the ancient world whose influence remains powerful in ours.

Silence

Permanent Press

"Retirees on a Florida island try to save an historic house, settle old scores, and pleasure new lovers but risk unearthing long-buried secrets in the bargain"--

Messing with Men

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Books by Christopher Brookhouse