"A riveting portrayal of the joys and mysteries of growing up, and of friendship itself." --People Mikey Callahan, a thirty-year-old who is suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration, struggles to establish human connections--even his emotional life is a blur. As the novel begins, he is reuniting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of them has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about herself and her friends. In this quietly startling, beautiful book, Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness. "Kauffman has done something remarkable with The Gunners." --The New York Times Book Review "A moving novel . . . Like an intimate hangout session, dashed with suspense and a few extra layers of emotional beauty." --Entertainment Weekly
Kauffman has done something remarkable with The Gunners . . . She's made spending time with her characters] not just tolerable but delightful. And she's achieved this not by manufacturing likability, but by so convincingly rendering the affection between them that you accept each character's foibles as readily as they do one another's . . . There's so much generosity and spirit and humor shared by whatever characters are on the page at any given time that I was always happy to accompany them. --The New York Times Book Review Following her wonderfully received first novel, Another Place You've Never Been, called "mesmerizing," "powerful," and "gorgeous," by critics all over the country, Rebecca Kauffman returns with Mikey Callahan, a thirty-year-old who is suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration. He struggles to establish human connections--even his emotional life is a blur. As the novel begins, he is reconnecting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of their members has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself from all of them before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about the group and its individuals. Mikey especially needs to confront dark secrets about his own past and his father. How much of this darkness accounts for the emotional stupor Mikey is suffering from as he reaches his maturity? And can The Gunners, prompted by Sally's death, find their way to a new day? The core of this adventure, made by Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam, becomes a search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgivenes