Love and Shame and Love

Alexander Popper is four years old when his father throws him into Lake Michigan, telling him to sink or swim. The rest of the family also struggles to stay afloat: His beautiful mother is trapped in an unhappy marriage; his brother, the shadow boss of the clan, rises above it; paternal grandparents, Seymour and Bernice, once high fliers, now live lives full of regret; and his father, obsessed with his own success, fails to see that the family is unraveling.

Covering four decades of Alexander's life--from childhood to romance to unexpected fatherhood--Peter Orner illuminates the intracacies of love, and the shame that sometimes follows. Alternately comic and sorrowful, LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE explores the universals with stunning originality and wisdom.

Peter Orner is the author of two widely praised books, Esther Stories and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo. He is also the editor of a book of oral histories, Underground America. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Granta, Best American Stories, and been awarded two Pushcart Prizes. Born in Chicago and trained as a lawyer, Orner now lives in San Francisco and is an associate professor at San Francisco State.