Hemingway Lobby Bar: A Second Chance

By Judy Fischer

Set between Quebec's Eastern Townships (Magog) and Lake George, New York, the novel follows Katherine "Kati" Borden (later Fisher), a longtime teacher approaching retirement who has been hollowed out by grief and by a loveless, controlling marriage to Wayne Fisher. After Wayne's death and the earlier loss of her teenage son, Kati is left emotionally stranded-her daughters live far away, her friendships have thinned, and the life she endured for decades suddenly feels both unbearable and pointless. A chance reading of a novel about late-life reunion pushes her to confront the secret she has guarded since her youth: she never stopped loving Tony Hadley, her first love from Montreal, and she has lived with the regret of walking away after their relationship collapsed under youthful fear, pride, and a shared trauma. While Kati begins rebuilding her future-submitting her resignation, leaning on her oldest friend Brenda, and seeking reassurance from her trusted doctor, John Adams-Tony is undergoing his own reckoning across the border. Now a small-town lawyer, he is newly free of a long, draining relationship with Sissy Blake and haunted by the ways he compromised himself over the years, including a dark period tied to the drug trade in Lake George. Still, despite everything, Tony has carried Kati in memory; when he asks his young clerk, Kevin Pratt, to help find her, the search uncovers that Kati married, became a respected teacher, and was widowed. As both protagonists move toward the same crossroads, the past tightens its grip: Kati fears the fallout of reopening her life-especially the buried truth about her oldest daughter's parentage-while Tony, stunned by what he learns, becomes consumed with making contact before time steals the chance. Kati finally calls Tony's office and leaves her message, but fate intervenes: at the very moment her long-awaited reconnection becomes possible, Tony is struck by a sudden medical crisis and is rushed to emergency care, clutching the note with her name and number. The story closes on that cliff-edge of possibility-two people finally reaching for their second chance, with reunion delayed once again, but no longer out of reach.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GZDDN8N4
• ISBN13: 9798259088948
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 446 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 8.0"