Bøger af Jeff Boyle

All of life's chapters reach closuresPeople seek closures, accept closures, or are desperate to prevent closures. Grieved or celebrated, closures are human experiences preceding death, life's final closure. As the eleven stories in this collection reveal, closures can be positive or negative ... and sometimes both. Excerpts from the book: "His busy hands were liquid smooth, effortless movements too quick for thought...brushing the leather like a jazz drummer until it sang, snapping the cotton cloth over the surfaces, a maestro conducting a symphony finale."- The Last Bootblack "The boys looked to him as a surrogate parent, constantly seeking approval. Leonard, always a mentor but never a buddy, carefully maintained distance. Adolescents struggling with life's pass-fail tests needed discipline."- Coach Z "Out on the flea market aisle, people of every age and shape shuffled by in slow-walk rhythm, tattooed young couples pushing baby strollers, seniors rolling spouses in wheelchairs, ethnic families conversing in foreign languages, somber folks down on their luck looking to stretch a few dollars."- Mike and the Psychic "The railroad tracks ran diagonally through the south end of the business district, creating a triangle-shaped public park where a towering tree canopy shaded a small one-story library, a deserted train station, and a bronze memorial listing the town's war dead."- 1963 "South Beach, with its iconic art deco buildings, luxury hotels and pool decks is no more, destroyed by permanent flooding of the barrier island. Waist-deep water at low tide has created an abandoned ghost town visited only by looters in small boats."- Miami Beach, 2050 Jeff Boyle is the author of the award-winning novel Nam World (2015), the award-winning story collection Hidden Truths (Bold Venture Press, 2016), and the novel The Bookseller's Secret (Bold Venture Press, 2020). Jeff lives and writes in Ormond Beach, Florida.

"A yearning for connection binds many of the stories in Jeff Boyle's fine collection. His lean, muscular prose reads as smooth as a flat sea. Yet still waters can disguise powerful undertows, and to slip into Boyle's world is to risk being swept away. Let yourself go, and when the current releases you back on shore you'll have more to contemplate than the view of the ocean many of his characters enjoy .... It's in the premise that we find commonalities among Boyle's sixteen stories. "In a world where people find themselves increasingly isolated from neighbors and their communities, Boyle shows us again and again characters swimming against that tide to reach some kind of bond with another. "Two retirees who navigate the unfamiliar customs of Internet dating. Young lovers who find insight into their relationship through a shared viewing of a classic film. A man drawn to a bedraggled street evangelist. The elderly patients of an assisted-living facility who bond over Scrabble. A childless couple who contemplate adopting a boy to fill an unstated void. A professor who bonds with his students over a Socratic exchange about the causes of crime. A man and woman whose May-December romance threatens to come crashing down on a discount-airlines flight. Young mall workers who learn about trust and love at the food court. "The stories are told with humor, compassion and an eye for detail that vivify the varied settings. You don't have to take daily bicycle rides on a breeze-cooled beach - as Boyle does - to feel the sun on your shoulders and smell the tang of salt on the air. " - from the introduction by Derek Catron

"What about the guy in New York who looks like me?" he asked. "Were you close?"She gave him a dismissive look as if it wasn't any of his business but did not duck the question, answering in a near-whisper."He was someone I cared about.""What happened to him?"Her eyes grew cold as she stared right through him."He died fifteen years ago in the Nine-Eleven attacks."April first, the annual celebration of lies, practical jokes and hoaxes. Carson Graham knew he lived as a permanent hoax. Marital nest fouled by another bird, he had taken flight to a new territory and assumed a new identity. Had his departure been the act of a coward or a pragmatist?Now he'd fled for a second time, to a city where he believed no one would recognize him, identity secure until confronted by Sara Olson. Maintaining cover demanded he stay away from her while at the same time getting close enough to find out how much she knew. This mission impossible caused him to leave his safe zone to obtain information crucial to keeping his secret ...