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| Category: Fiction:Literary |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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St. Louis, summer 1976. The nation prepares to celebrate the bicentennial of its birth…as the metropolis on the Mississippi appears to spiral toward its demise. Twenty-three-year-old Gus Alterman can't help probing his crumbling city's hidden corners. Adopted at birth by a family that shaped his circumstance but somehow doesn’t explain who he is, Gus seeks to uncover the hidden patterns that might guide him—and the city—out of ruts that feel as inescapable as his daily grocery run. A delivery to a local obituary writer reveals hidden secrets, and with them a path forward. Now Gus must decide: What price will he pay to rescue the missing pieces of a tortured city's past?
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| Reviews | |
Bringing to life an extraordinary cast of characters whose vibrant lives intersect in thrilling ways, Sandweiss takes his place alongside the great chroniclers of St. Louis, that endlessly fascinating city whose social and economic flux tells the complicated story of post-industrial America. The Obits is beautiful and wise. Eric Sandweiss has crafted a stirring and beautifully written novel set in St. Louis during America’s Bicentennial in 1976. The two central characters in this compelling drama are the city itself, struggling to preserve its heritage, and a young man raised by adopted parents who will stumble upon answers to the mystery of his heritage. With the research skills of a historian and the social navigation of a native St. Louisan, Eric Sandweiss has given us a novel that charts a man's search for his own past...If you love this city for its social complexity, or you are baffled by it, The Obits will take you on a historic tour of St. Louis neighborhoods that is deeper than the facades of its historic buildings.
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| About the Author | |
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Eric Sandweiss is Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University and former Director of Research at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. A native St. Louisan, he now lives in Bloomington, Indiana. |