Brood X

What if you could go back to that perfect summer love you had when you were seventeen? Andy Gardner wishes he could: his entire life has become a disappointment since then. Now 34, divorced and stuck in a going-nowhere job in a going-nowhere town, he knows his quest to find Ashley probably doesn't end well. Then Brood X hatches, covering much of the country with screaming cicadas - and with their arrival comes his neighbor and fellow-divorcee Scarlett. Faced with having to deal with his past in order to move on, Andy sets off to find out why the perfect girl simply disappeared and discovers the truth is more complicated than he ever imagined.Dan Stockman's character-driven debut novel is about coming to grips with lost love, told through Andy's journey to find something bigger than the summer love of his youth. And in the middle of his story is the cicada, the near-miraculous insect that waits underground seventeen years for a few, fleeting moments of freedom and light."In the quiet fury of his prose, Dan Stockman's 'Brood X' not only ramps up the intensity of deep longing and loss, but does so with humor and heart, not to mention heartbreak. There are moments of lyricism that mesmerize, characters that enchant, and a story that kept me turning the pages." -Jack Driscoll, PEN/Nelson Algren and Pushcart Prize winner, "The World of a Few Minutes Ago""...A vividly compelling narrative with characters that have a depth and resonance that compel the reader to examine lives and scrutinize decisions." -Fred McKissack Jr., "Shooting Star"