Joseph Olshan

Award-winning author Joseph Olshan’s latest novel, Milo’s Reckoning, follows a grieving New York PhD student through an investigation into the death of his mentor, leading him along a trail of dark clues that take him to Italy and beyond. When Milo Rossi, a graduate student in Italian at New York University, learns of the sudden and mysterious death of his mentor, Lenny D'Ambrosio, despite the official ruling of suicide, he suspects foul play. Embarking on a quest for answers, his investigation unexpectedly intertwines with the accidental death of his brother, Carlo, six years prior. As Milo delves deeper, he encounters unsettling truths about his brother's life and death, uncovering a web of secrets and hidden connections. His search takes him across New York City and eventually to Italy, where he stumbles upon a horrifying reality: a network of human sex trafficking and exploitation. Confronted with the harsh realities of human suffering and the complexities of justice, Milo's journey is one of personal reckoning and profound transformation. He must confront his own grief, question his assumptions, and ultimately decide how to respond to the darkness he has uncovered.

Award-winning author Joseph Olshan’s latest novel, Milo’s Reckoning, follows a grieving New York PhD student through an investigation into the death of his mentor, leading him along a trail of dark clues that take him to Italy and beyond.When Milo Rossi, a graduate student in Italian at New York University, learns of the sudden and mysterious death of his mentor, Lenny D'Ambrosio, despite the official ruling of suicide, he suspects foul play. Embarking on a quest for answers, his investigation unexpectedly intertwines with the accidental death of his brother, Carlo, six years prior. As Milo delves deeper, he encounters unsettling truths about his brother's life and death, uncovering a web of secrets and hidden connections. His search takes him across New York City and eventually to Italy, where he stumbles upon a horrifying reality: a network of human sex trafficking and exploitation. Confronted with the harsh realities of human suffering and the complexities of justice, Milo's journey is one of personal reckoning and profound transformation. He must confront his own grief, question his assumptions, and ultimately decide how to respond to the darkness he has uncovered.

The Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire is a rural region that lies on either side of the Connecticut River. It is a place populated by wealthy and working class people, a place where people feel safe. But when a serial killer begins to target young women, everything changes.

The pursuit of Eros, the yearning for intimacy, and the struggle to reconcile bisexuality with a longing for children--these are the desires etched in the hearts of the characters of this brave and probing novel by the award-winning author of Clara's Heart and Nightswimmer. The moment that Sam Solomon, is transfixed by an erotic drawing that hangs in the apartment of a dying art dealer, Elliot Garland, he finds himself caught in an under-tow of confusion and longing. Garland, stricken with AIDS, has hired Sam to write his memoirs, yet manages to withhold crucial information about his life. Sam suspects, however, that the drawing, called Vanitas, is the relic of a dramatic, and secret, history that could provide answers to the questions his subject has refused to address. Vanitas explores the intersections between the disparate worlds of art and art restoration, publishing, and urban relationships, all of which are in the grip of an implacable epidemic. As Sam traverses the landscapes of disease, romance, and mystery, he is enveloped by a culture in which individuals make tenuous connections with one another as land mines explode all around them. And as he negotiates the hazards of the volatile allegiances and jealousies attendant to his own romantic entanglements, he finds himself face to face with a familiar existential dilemma--the desire to raise a child despite society's condemnation of nontraditional families. A brilliantly written story of the lonely, painful search for happiness in unconventional choices, Vanitas is a rare novel--a daring orchestration of event and character that is a bold, hopeful, and accomplished piece of literature.

When David's mother brought Clara Mayfield from Jamaica to live in their affluent household, David told the exotic intruder to go back to where she came from. But the indomitable Clara would take no nonsense, and soon began to capture David's affections.

A stunning literary thriller set in rural Vermont from Joseph Olshan, the much praised author of Nightswimmer and Clara's Heart Once a major reporter for a national newspaper, Catherine Winslow has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a household hints column. While out walking during an early spring thaw, Catherine discovers the body of a woman leaning against an apple tree near her house. From the corpse's pink parka, Winslow recognizes her as the latest victim of a serial killer, a woman reported missing weeks before during a blizzard. When her neighbor, a forensic psychiatrist, is pulled into the investigation, Catherine begins to discover some unexpected connections to the serial murders. One is that the murders might be based on a rare unfinished Wilkie Collins novel that is missing from her personal library. The other is her much younger lover from her failed affair has unexpectedly resurfaced and is trying to maneuver his way back into her affections. Elegant, haunting and profoundly gripping, Cloudland is an ingenious psychological trap baited with murder, deception and the intricacies of desire.

The author of Clara's Heart" crafts a vivid mosaic of the passions and pressures of gay life in New York City as two men find their all-consuming affair threatened by the cynicism of mutual friends and memories of lost love. Nominated for the Lambda Award.

Russell Todaro, a young American translator, moves to Paris to take stock of his life and goals only to further lose himself in the surprising twists fate has in store for him. One night, two men waving guns and knives break and enter their Paris hotel room, terrorizing Russell and his much older companion, a famous American poet named Edward Cannon. The intruders, not finding what they seemingly expected, leave without further incident but the baffling, traumatic events overwhelm Cannon who dies in his sleep later that night. Now Russell is left to ponder the meaning of the attack, what to do with the poet's unfinished, problematic memoir and, perhaps most importantly, how to reconstruct and move forward with his own life. Hearing of the disturbing circumstances of Cannon's death, an Italian writer, Marina Vezzoli, invites Russell to recuperate at her villa in Tuscany. But what at first seems like a generous invitation slowly reveals itself to be a calculated offer. As Russell's stay in Italy lengthens, he begins to realize that the people in his life are using or manipulating him, most of all the poet's New York publishers who, against the dying man's wishes, are trying to acquire his unfinished manuscript. Looming over everything is the long and fascinating legacy of Villa Guidi, where during Word War II a Jewish family hid in the subterranean floors, later undergoing a conversion to Catholicism. In an echo of this dramatic history, Russell is forced to undergo a conversion of his own in order to find redemption and meaning in his life.

One night, two men waving guns and knives break and enter their Paris hotel room, terrorizing Russell and his much older companion, a famous American poet named Edward Cannon. The intruders, not finding what they seemingly expected, leave without further incident. But the baffling, traumatic events overwhelm Cannon who dies in his sleep later that night. Now Russell is left to ponder the meaning of the attack, what to do with the poet's unfinished, problematic memoir and, perhaps most importantly, how to reconstruct and move forward with his own life.Hearing of the disturbing circumstances of Cannon's death, an Italian writer, Marina Vezzoli, invites Russell to recuperate at her villa in Tuscany. But what at first seems like a generous invitation slowly reveals itself to be a calculated offer. As Russell's stay in Italy lengthens, he begins to realize that the people in his life are using or manipulating him, most of all the poet's New York publishers who, against the dying poet's wishes, are trying to acquire his unfinished manuscript. Looming over everything is the long and fascinating legacy of Villa Guidi, where during Word War II a Jewish family hid in the subterranean floors, later undergoing a conversion to Catholicism. In an echo of this dramatic history, Russell is forced to undergo a conversion of his own in order to find redemption and meaning in his life.

At 75, Clara Mayfield comes to the emotional rescue of Will Kaplan, now a cartographer based in Vermont. Aware to the outside world "an elderly black woman and a young white man didn't add up", Clara knows that she and Will are tied into a bond as strong as any blood family's.

When Sam Solomon sees a stunning erotic drawing in the home of a dying art dealer, he is overwhelmed by a tide of confusion and longing. The dealer has hired Sam to write his memoirs yet withholds crucial information - information that Sam suspects 'Vanitas', the drawing, may hold answers to.

When David's mother brought Clara Mayfield from Jamaica to live in their affluent household, David told the exotic intruder to go back to where she came from. But the indomitable Clara would take no nonsense, and soon began to capture David's affections.

Ten years ago, Will's lover disappeared on a night swim in the Pacific. Was Will's emptiness a feeling of mourning or rejection? He now meets Sean, who is himself the object of a passionate fatal obsession. As they dodge one another, they move in a network of self-conscious, gym-obsessed men.