The Children Everywhere, Asleep

By Paul Cody

At sixty-nine, retired academic Clayton has built a life that seems far removed from his troubled past: a nearly forty-year marriage to Ann, two grown sons, and a successful career. But a diagnosis of Stage 1 lung cancer forces him to confront the memories he has spent a lifetime carrying. As he endures treatment, his mind drifts through a kaleidoscope of the past: a childhood of poverty outside Boston, devastating depression, addiction, sexual assault, and thirty days confined to a state mental hospital. Those memories intertwine with the stories of his foundling mother, his haunted father, his wife, his children, and generations of family stretching from New York City to Boston and Ithaca. How does a child shaped by trauma become a husband, father, and scholar? As illness brings mortality into sharp focus, Clayton searches the fragments of memory for the meaning of a life marked by suffering, resilience, and love. A powerful novel about the families that shape us, the memories that haunt us, and the courage it takes to face both-- before time runs out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1646038797
• ISBN13: 9781646038794
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Regal House Publishing
• Length: 248 Pages
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"