Coming Soon

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself. In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind. Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me. This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time. Are you listening? 

Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat. His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge --- from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean that he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow and remains there, having missed one chance at love --- and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family and their role in their community are changed forever.

Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made apocalypse: in a near-future Seoul, where air pollution has become so fatal that the city has been encased in a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage. A painter, disenchanted with New York City, travels to the South of France and falls into a dalliance with an entrepreneur who claims to have invented a new color. And on an island where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, upon which other countries have relegated their waste to form a mountain of landfill, a local boy facing daily privation gets internet famous for his K-pop-inspired dances. 

Karl and Molly were never together. There was a time, right after high school, where it seemed like they might finally cross the line from friends to lovers…but instead, a foolish misunderstanding meant they never spoke again. Molly went to LA and got married. Karl stayed in Harlot’s Bay and bought a bakery. Now divorced, Molly narrates monster romance audiobooks, and Karl is an ever-diligent listener, clinging to his only piece of the one that got away. Still, Molly hasn’t totally left Harlot’s Bay behind. When she hears that Karl’s obituary has run in the local paper, unexpected grief prompts her to hop on the next flight to Maryland…where she finds Karl very much alive, the victim of nothing but an accidental obituary. As the pair reunite, they finally hash out their missed connection. True, Molly isn’t quite ready to trust again, but Karl is determined to prove himself worthy of her faith and devotion.

Lucy Barnes is a gardener with an uncanny ability to know exactly which scent among her flowers will illuminate to a person a key from their past. Sadly, she no longer uses her gift and has fled her hometown. But six months after her mother’s death, Lucy awakens to find her mother’s unmistakable scent drifting over her, and she knows that she is being called home. And when a note leads her to take a job at the Oceanview Home, a senior-living residence, Lucy finds herself wondering if there is more to her gift. Her work among the lush gardens of Oceanview Home soon awakens the community. But not everyone is happy to see how her presence has transformed the Oceanview Home, and when a secret comes to light that threatens to shatter the community, the future looks uncertain.

Spenser is waiting out the latest Boston snowstorm when he gets word that Rita Fiore has been shot. Rita always has been a tricky one. Flirting with Spenser for years, she’s an ever-present figure that transcends friendship in Spenser’s circle. But at the end of the day, Rita is family. And family will always be protected. Both a pit bull in the courtroom and provocateur outside it, Rita is no stranger to controversy. But as one of the city’s toughest lawyers, Spenser knows that there’s no short list of suspects who might want to enact revenge. With Rita’s life hanging in the balance, it’s up to him to get to the bottom of things, even if it means unearthing some unsavory secrets that just might lead him into an age-old game of lies and deceit.