FORGIVING AUGUST A Novel
30th Anniversary Edition Ebook Releasing Soon!
FORGIVING AUGUST, the first book I wrote and had published, was released by Pinon Press in 1993. Out of print for the past decade, Forgiving August is now available as an exclusive ebook in a new 30th Anniversary Edition, with an added Introduction in which I reflect on the process of writing this novel and its timeless appeal. Thank you to everyone who has asked about finding a copy--I'm delighted this new edition will be available this summer! More details to come.
That summer is forever crystalized in my memory.
One moment rock candy, the next a shard of glass.
Instead of relaxing before he leaves for college, Bounty McGraw feels stuck in the dog days of summer, caught in the undertow that's threatened to pull him under his entire life. His parents' troubled marriage, always teetering on the edge of collapse, finally goes over the edge. His boss threatens to withhold the key to Bounty's future unless he complies with sinister demands. And when Bounty's father goes missing, a quiet stranger appears out of the blue, claiming to be part of their family. Not to mention the mysterious image of Jesus manifested each evening on the side of his neighbor's porch freezer.
Yearning to escape the confines of his Tennessee small town, Bounty knows any hope for a better future requires facing his family's past. In a bittersweet August brimming with pain, hope, and uncertainty, he uncovers new secrets that leave him reeling: "The summer after I graduated from high school was one of the few times in my life when change seemed as tangible as a blade, whittling away at all I had known and expected, leaving consequences that continue to carve deep places inside me."
Written in the timeless tradition of Southern fiction, Forgiving August is more than a coming-of-age tale—it's a poetic parable on the necessity of faith when facing the sins of the father.
DUDLEY DELFFS, PhD, is an award-winning novelist, poet, and biographer. Drawing on past experience as both an English professor and publishing executive, he often coaches other authors when not working on his own projects. When he's not writing or traveling, Dudley enjoys hiking, painting, and smoking his Dunhill pipe on the porch of his home in Sewanee, Tennessee. He and his wife have three adult children and one grandchild.