A Call From Spooner Street

A stirring tale of the fitful reconciliation between a retired German professor and his estranged adult daughter during the old man's last months.

Three generations of strong-minded Rosens have gone their own ways, keeping a safe distance from each other. When Peter Rosen, the octogenarian émigré professor, takes a bad fall in the snow, his estranged adult daughter Marlene begins flying back regularly to her childhood home in Madison to care for her father.

To enable Peter to stay in his book-filled home on Spooner Street, Marlene finds a Dominican home-care nurse. But she delays telling her old father that Raul is gay and HIV positive. Raul's tender ministrations bring the old man a new gentleness, and long days amidst her father's German books in a house filled with childhood memories enable Marlene to relinquish old resentment and rekindle her deep love for him.

The return of an old lover helps Marlene confront her own lapses. When her son returns from Africa for a last visit with his grandfather, Noah instigates a deeper honesty, love and forgiveness among all three Rosens.

"[A] superb novel, tender, wise, and beautifully crafted. I found myself reading more slowly as the end of this stunning novel was in sight, not wanting to leave its embrace." - Marnie Muller, author of The Climate of the Country