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"Greg Johnson writes with uncommon clarity and beauty about the many faces of love and the price of living honestly and flat out," wrote Anne Rivers Siddons of Johnson's debut novel, Pagan Babies. In his new novel, he delves even more deeply into the complex and irrevocable ties of family. Abby Sandler has not spoken to her brother, Thom, in four years, the result of a family explosion that has over time evolved into a dull resentment and a futile waiting for someone else to make the first move. His unexpected phone call wrenches her away from her staid life as a teacher in Philadelphia and unofficial companion to their possessive widowed mother and sends her back to Atlanta, where they both grew up and Thom still lives. Over the ensuing holiday season, as Thom and Abby tentatively move toward reconciliation, both are also moving toward elusive new lives: Thom, newly diagnosed HIV-positive, is still grappling with the loss of his lover Roy; Abby, her earlier sense of self reawakened, is unexpectedly plunged into a passionate love affair. But it is with Thom's eclectic group of friends that Abby finds herself most involved, and as this often chaotic group swirls around them, both Thom and Abby confront the often ephemeral, impossible-to-pin-down nature of human connection, both fragile and strong as steel, that ultimately draws them toward unexpected confrontations and a staggering realization of the healing power of love.Greg Johnson is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta. He is the author of Pagan Babies, I Am Dangerous, Aid and Comfort, A Friendly Deceit, and Distant Friends. His short fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, The Southern Humanities Review, and Best American Short Stories. He was named Georgia Author of the Year in 1991 and 1997 and was a winner in the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project.
