Stewart O'Nan – författare

The acclaimed author of A Prayer for the Dying brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedy and heroism—the great Hartford circus fire of 1944.It was a midsummer afternoon, halfway through a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus performance, when the big top caught fire. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; in seconds it was burning out of control. More than 8,000 people were trapped inside, and the ensuing disaster would eventually take 167 lives. Steward O''Nan brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, O''Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events and illuminates the psychological oddities of human behavior under stress: the mad scramble for the exits; the perilous effort to maneuver animals out of danger; the hero who tossed dozens of children to safety before being trampled to death. Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The Circus Fire is history at its most compelling.

Kelley Armstrong, Stewart O’Nan, Taylor Grant, Jonathan Moore, Peter Straub, and Lee Thomas weave six hair-raising yarns proving that appearances can be deceiving—and deadly—in this horror anthology assembled by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar.   INVITATION TO THE GAME by Kelley Armstrong Vivienne dreams of moving up in the company, and now she’s got her chance. All the company asks in return is that she prove her absolute devotion by playing a simple, silly little game.   SUMMER OF ’77 by Stewart O’Nan Suntanned and bleached blond, the boys and girls of summer never expect anything to interrupt their carefree days. They never see me coming until it’s too late.   THE DEAD YEARS by Taylor Grant Emma was the great love of his life, even after she vanished. So when she reappears at a cocktail party fifteen years later, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her from slipping away again.   THE BLACKOUT by Jonathan Moore When a body goes missing from the morgue, Detective Nakahara is called in to investigate. Despite the storm, it should be a simple case. After all, a dead body can’t just walk out on its own . . . right?   VARIATIONS ON A THEME FROM SEINFELD by Peter Straub At six years old, Clyde noticed that his reflection decided not to show up in the mirror. Whenever it happens, he just needs to go through the mirror and fetch him. The trick is making it back.   TORN by Lee Thomas Luther’s Bend is the kind of place where bad things just aren’t supposed to happen, but even the sleepiest towns have secrets . . . and the full moon can bring retribution for all manners of sins.   Praise for the Dark Screams series   “A wicked treat [featuring] . . . some of the genre’s best.”—Hellnotes, on Volume One   “Five fun-to-read stories by top-notch horror scribes. How can you lose? The answer: you can’t.”—Atomic Fangirl, on Volume Two   “If you have not tried the series yet, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of any (or all) of the books for yourself.”—Examiner.com, on Volume Three   “Fans of horror of every variety will find something to love in these pages.”—LitReactor, on Volume Four   “[Volume Five] runs the gamut from throwback horror to lyrical and heartbreaking tales.”—Publishers Weekly

A member of the greatest generation looks back on the loves and losses of his past and comes to treasure the present anew in this poignant and thoughtful new novel from a modern masterStewart O''Nan is renowned for illuminating the unexpected grace of everyday life and the resilience of ordinary people with humor, intelligence, and compassion. In this prequel to the beloved Emily, Alone, he offers an unsentimental, moving life story of a twentieth-century everyman. Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. 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 anymore. 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?Like Emily, Alone, Henry, Himself is a wry, warmhearted portrait of an American original who believes he''s reached a dead end only to discover life is full of surprises.

“Faithful isn''t just about the Red Sox. It''s also about family, friendship, and what it truly means to be a baseball fan and to be—well, faithful, come hell or high water” (The Boston Globe). “Of all the books that will examine the Boston Red Sox''s stunning come-from-behind 2004 ALCS win over the Yankees and subsequent World Series victory, none will have this book''s warmth, personality, or depth” (Publishers Weekly).Early in 2004, two writers and Red Sox fans, Stewart O''Nan and Stephen King, decided to chronicle the upcoming season, one of the most hotly anticipated in baseball history. They would sit together at Fenway. They would exchange emails. They would write about the games. And, as it happened, they would witness the greatest comeback ever in sports, and the first Red Sox championship in eighty-six years. What began as a Sox-filled summer like any other is now a fan''s notes for the ages.

“Faithful isn''t just about the Red Sox. It''s also about family, friendship, and what it truly means to be a baseball fan and to be—well, faithful, come hell or high water” (The Boston Globe). “Of all the books that will examine the Boston Red Sox''s stunning come-from-behind 2004 ALCS win over the Yankees and subsequent World Series victory, none will have this book''s warmth, personality, or depth” (Publishers Weekly).Early in 2004, two writers and Red Sox fans, Stewart O''Nan and Stephen King, decided to chronicle the upcoming season, one of the most hotly anticipated in baseball history. They would sit together at Fenway. They would exchange emails. They would write about the games. And, as it happened, they would witness the greatest comeback ever in sports, and the first Red Sox championship in eighty-six years. What began as a Sox-filled summer like any other is now a fan''s notes for the ages.

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

From the author of Last Night at the Lobster, a moving vision of love and family.

A sequel to the bestselling, much-beloved Wish You Were Here, Stewart O''Nan''s intimate new novel follows Emily Maxwell, a widow whose grown children have long moved away. She dreams of vists by her grandchildren while mourning the turnover of her quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood, but when her sole companion and sister-in-law Arlene faints at their favorite breakfast buffet, Emily''s days change. As she grapples with her new independence, she discovers a hidden strength and realizes that life always offers new possibilities. Like most older women, Emily is a familiar yet invisible figure, one rarely portrayed so honestly. Her mingled feelings-of pride and regret, joy and sorrow- are gracefully rendered in wholly unexpected ways. Once again making the ordinary and overlooked not merely visible but vital to understanding our own lives, Emily, Alone confirms O''Nan as an American master.

In the new novel from the author of Last Night at the Lobster, a middle-age couple goes all in for love at a Niagara Falls casino

 

Look out for City of Secrets coming from Viking on April 26, 2016Stewart O''Nan''s thirteenth novel is another wildly original, bittersweet gem like his celebrated Last Night at the Lobster. Valentine''s weekend, Art and Marion Fowler flee their Cleveland suburb for Niagara Falls, desperate to recoup their losses. Jobless, with their home approaching foreclosure and their marriage on the brink of collapse, Art and Marion liquidate their savings account and book a bridal suite at the Falls'' ritziest casino for a second honeymoon. While they sightsee like tourists during the day, at night they risk it all at the roulette wheel to fix their finances-and save their marriage. A tender yet honest exploration of faith, forgiveness and last chances, The Odds is a reminder that love, like life, is always a gamble.

From the Hardcover edition.

A “rich, sometimes heartbreaking” (Dennis Lehane) novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in HollywoodLook out for City of Secrets coming from Viking on April 26, 2016

 

In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart  attack. Those 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 gorgeously and gracefully written 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 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. A sympathetic and deeply personal portrait of a flawed man who never gave up in the end, even as his every wish and hope seemed thwarted, West of Sunset confirms O’Nan as “possibly our best working novelist” (Salon).

From the Hardcover edition.

“Stewart O’Nan’s City of Secrets will keep you up all night reading – what a beautifully crafted novel.” – Alan Furst, New York Times bestselling author of Mission to ParisFrom master storyteller Stewart O''Nan, a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World WarIn 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them; taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. 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.From the Hardcover edition.

A frank and funny yet emotionally resonant tale set within a vivid work day world--named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment WeeklyA Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall, the Red Lobster hasn''t been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift--just four days before Christmas and in the midst of a fierce blizzard--with a near-mutinous staff and the final onslaught of hungry retirees, lunatics, and holiday office parties. All the while, he''s wondering how to handle the waitress he''s still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend, and where to find the present that will make everything better. Stewart O''Nan has been called "the bard of the working class," and Last Night at the Lobster is a poignant yet redemptive look at what a man does when he discovers that his best might not be good enough.

A heartfelt family drama of loss and reconciliation with the unthinkableLook out for City of Secrets coming from Viking on April 26, 2016Returning again to the theme of working-class people and their wrenching concerns, Songs for the Missing begins with the suspenseful pace of a thriller, following an Ohio community?s efforts to locate a young woman who has gone missing. It soon deepens into an affecting portrait of a family trying desperately to hold onto itself and the memory of a daughter whose return becomes increasingly unlikely. Stark and honest, this is an intimate account of what happens behind the headlines of a very American tragedy.From the Trade Paperback edition.