Black Coffee
A Novel
by
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"Out on the streets the day had dimmed. Sunset burnished the landscape as he tracked suburban lanes in his white Honda Civic, and the sight of kids on bikes and in grassy yards, where footballs wobbled through the leaf-shattered light with its pumice of autumnal dusk, made him suddenly blue as hell. If things had worked out as they're supposed to he'd have married Mel long ago, and one of those kids would be his kid, chucking loose spirals and sliding on lawns, running colt-like in the fusty pre-dark, arriving flushed and late for dinner. On the other hand, who wanted it? The exhaustion and sacrifice, the too-touching sweetness of their childhoods, the heartache of their adolescence, the rejection that was bound to come. Who wanted to watch close-up the creature you put all your marbles in, get chewed up bit by bit by a sprawling culture of neurotic apes who had overrun the globe? Who wanted the slow crucifixion?"
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About the Book
Death brings families together. Sometimes. When three middle-aged siblings return to Chicago to visit their dying mother, strange chemistries are mingled and distilled. And the potion is not very pleasant. Will their mother -- an expert on butterflies and moths and collector of rare nature art -- be able to smooth the rift? Or is there a deeper divide at work, one that stretches back through time to their earliest Celtic forebears?
This is a hard-nosed love story, intricately woven with drama, beauty, surprise, and imagination. It deals complexly with betrayal, with dysfunction and schizophrenia, and with the hidden power of love.
About the Author
Jack Wennerstrom is the author of two acclaimed books, SOLDIERS DELIGHT JOURNAL and LEANING SYCAMORES, numerous essays for national publications, and four novels. A candidate for The John Burroughs Medal and past President of BioTrek Naturalists, he was for 10 years a Contributing Editor at Bird-Watcher's Digest. He lives near Baltimore, Maryland.