Virginia Lovers

What would you do if you knew who killed a friend of yours, but you couldn’t come forward with the truth? From the prize-winning author of Hello Down There and Towns Without Rivers comes a novel about brotherhood and betrayal, deceit and desire. In the autumn of 1975, a small town struggles with the mysterious murder of a gay teenager found dead in his parents’ bed following a high-school keg party. As Thomas Edgecombe, the editor of the town’s newspaper, diligently reports on the crime, he begins to suspect that his two sons may be involved. Daniel, a straight-A student and a friend of the victim, seems destined for a prestigious college scholarship and a better life, while his younger brother Pete numbs his adolescence in a haze of marijuana and derelict behavior. The brothers have grown apart over the years, keeping secrets about life and love, girls and boys. Now, they will be forced to face hard truths about each other and their changing, dangerous world. Virginia Lovers is a powerful, fast-paced novel about all ages and for all ages. It is about the expectations placed on all of us by family, society, and ourselves. Michael Parker is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and his work has been featured in Pushcart and New Stories From the South. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he teaches in the writing program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His new novel, If You Want Me To Stay,will be published this fall.