Stewart O'Nan – författare

At midnight on Halloween in a New England suburb, a car carrying five teenagers veers from a winding road and slams into a tree, killing three of them. There are two survivors, one suffering brain damage. Only Tim is left alive and unharmed, but his life has been irrevocably torn apart. A year later to the day, summoned by the memories of those closest to them, the three who died have come back on a chilling final mission to revisit their families, friends and those they hold responsible.

An award-winning collection of short fiction from one of "the strongest American writers of his generation" (The Washington Post Book World).Proclaimed "a master" by the New York Times and selected as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, Stewart O'Nan started his literary career with this outstanding collection of short stories. Selected as the winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, these twelve stories offer intimate portraits of a broad range of characters—including a ruined farmer, a black day laborer, an old Chinese grocer, and a young policeman who descends into madness after being separated from his family.Probing and lyrical, these stories illuminate the connections that bind us and the obligations and sorrows of love. From The Speed Queen to The Names of the Dead to West of Sunset, O'Nan has dazzled readers again and again. Fans new and old will enjoy In the Walled City."These are stories of a high order, sophisticated, humane, persistent; once read, they don't go away." —Tobias Wolff

When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl.For the Oliviera family - mum Carol, daughters Angel and Marie - autumn 2009 in the once-prosperous beach town of Ashaway, Rhode Island is the worst of times. Money is tight, Carol can't stay away from unsuitable men, Angel's world is shattered when she learns her long-time boyfriend Myles has been cheating on her with classmate Birdy, and Marie is left to fend for herself. As Angel and Birdy, both consumed by the intensity of their feelings for Myles, careen towards a collision both tragic and inevitable, the loyalties of Carol and Marie will be tested in ways they could never have foreseen.Stewart O'Nan's expert hand has crafted a crushing and propulsive novel about sisters, mothers and daughters, and the desperate ecstasies of love and the terrible things we do for it. Both swoony and haunting, Ocean State is a masterful work by one of the great storytellers of everyday American life.

From master storyteller Stewart O'Nan, a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War.In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees set out for Palestine in their tens of thousands. City of Secrets follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided - like his new identity - by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance. Alone, haunted by memories, he tries to become again the man he was before the war - honest, strong, capable of moral choice. He falls in love with Eva, a fellow survivor and member of his cell, reclaims his faith, and commits himself to the revolution, accepting secret missions that grow more and more dangerous even as he begins to suspect he's being used by their cell's dashing leader, Asher. By the time Brand understands the truth, it's too late, and the tragedy that ensues changes history. A noirish, deeply felt novel of intrigue and identity written in O'Nan's trademark lucent style, City of Secrets asks how both despair and faith can lead us astray, and what happens when, with the noblest intentions, we join movements beyond our control.

Crest has lost the use of his legs after falling off a walkway while trying to write graffiti on a roadside wall; his best friend, Bean, fell too and died. Now Crest must try to repair his relationship with Vanessa, the mother of his child, whose night-school class is alerting her to a wider world. Crest's older brother Eugene, an ex-con turned born-again Christian, is facing the temptations of his past, while their parents confront their own crisis.Powerful and moving, tender and resonant, Everyday People is an unforgettable novel that vividly captures the experience of the day-to-day struggle that is life in urban America.

'Always, [O'Nan] is a master at quotidian details, a master at human emotion. Always, he writes with a huge and generous heart. Evensong is tender and funny, poignant and true. The novel is a little miracle' Boston GlobeThe Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down the stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors' appointments, they have to pick up the slack.Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O'Nan has fashioned a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honour. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he's always believed in logic, sacrifice and hard work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It's 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple any more. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife, Emily, and dog, Rufus, stand by him.Once so confident, as Henry's strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can't answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?Henry, Himself is a wry, warmhearted portrait of an American original - a man who believes he's reached a dead end only to discover life is full of surprises.

In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long behind him. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruin, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood.The last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's heartfelt new novel. With flashbacks to key moments from Fitzgerald's past, the story follows him as he arrives on the MGM lot, falls in love with brassy gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, begins work on The Last Tycoon, and tries to maintain a semblance of family life with the absent Zelda and their daughter, Scottie.Fitzgerald's orbit of literary fame and the Golden Age of Hollywood is brought vividly to life through the novel's romantic cast of characters, from Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. Written with striking grace and subtlety, this wise and intimate portrait of a man trying his best to hold together a world that's flying apart, if not gone already, is an American masterpiece.