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Stewart O'Nan

Biography

Stewart O'Nan

Stewart O’Nan is the author of numerous books, including WISH YOU WERE HERE, EVERYDAY PEOPLE, IN THE WALLED CITY, THE SPEED QUEEN and EMILY, ALONE. His 2007 novel, LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he lives with his family.

Stewart O'Nan

Books by Stewart O'Nan

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction

In the first line of OCEAN STATE, we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there is thus one of the build-up to and fallout from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. Angel, the murderer; Carol, her mother; and Birdy; the victim all converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel’s younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight. Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy and are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated.

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner and churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he's always believed in logic, sacrifice and hard work. Now, 75 and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It's 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry's strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can't answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them. Taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved.

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald’s life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O’Nan’s novel.

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction, Literary Fiction

On Valentine's weekend, their lives on the brink of collapse, Art and Marion Fowler flee to Niagara Falls and book a bridal suite. While they sightsee during the day, at night they risk it all at the roulette wheel to fix their finances --- and save their marriage. 

by Stewart O'Nan - Fiction

Emily Maxwell, a widow with grown children far away, grapples with her new independence, discovering hidden strengths and realizing that life always offers new possibilities. 

Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King - History, Nonfiction, Sports

Early in 2004, two writers and Red Sox fans, Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, decided to chronicle the upcoming season, one of the most hotly anticipated in baseball history. They would sit together at Fenway. They would exchange emails. They would write about the games. And, as it happened, they would witness the greatest comeback ever in sports, and the first Red Sox championship in 86 years. What began as a Sox-filled summer like any other is now a fan's notes for the ages.