This is a love story. In this, his first novel, Eugene McNamaara tells the story of Jack Kaspar, failed architect, and son of an RAF pilot killed in the Battle of Britain, who spends his life feeling bereft, orphaned and exiled. Survivor of at least one blighted love affair and a failed marriage, he is wary about his future when he meets Sally Hudson, art curator, herself a survivor of an abusive marriage. Jack and Sally’s love story is intercut with passages from Jack’s grandfather’s journal, his grandmother’s journal, excerpts from books about his grandmother, Jack’s imagined re-creation of his parents’ first meeting, Jack’s own journal, and Sally’s journal. This novel is about the painful burden of public and private history and how the survivors cope and get on with their own lives.

Eugene McNamara is a profound voice in Canadian Literature. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois and immigrated to Canada in 1959. McNamara attended Northwestern University where he received his Ph.D. He taught American literature and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He was the founder and Editor in Chief of University of Windsor’s Windsor Review from 1965 to 1987. He and his wife, Margaret, live in Windsor, Ontario. His stories and poems have been in Best Canadian Stories, Best American Short Stories, Ontario Review, Saturday Night, Malahat Review and Queens Quarterly. He has given frequent readings of his work in Canada, the US and England.

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