Jude Joseph Lovell

The seventeen pieces in Jude Joseph Lovell's second collection of nonfiction writing deepens his inquiries into the things that matter to him most: family, faith, and popular art. A series of book and film reviews written for a small magazine in his home state of Pennsylvania charts the development of his emerging critical voice. "Upon This Rock" offers a compelling portrait of a hard-working band and wonders about the similarities between rock n' roll shows and church services. "4F" reflects on a childhood played out across the backyard gridiron as well as around the altar. And in the powerful title essay, Lovell strives to breach the lines between Heaven and Earth to pursue a further connection with the father he lost - only to discover that the reverse is already happening. Diverse, humorous, and poignant, THE INTERCESSIONS is a wide-ranging examination of those things that give our busy lives color and meaning.

In THE WIDOW'S PRAYER - the first installment of a planned duology - a promising college football player named Walter Brogan steps off a train on a freezing night in northern Indiana. It is 1920. There he is greeted by a priest and his uncle with tragic news. His father, a police officer, has been killed in a raid while enforcing the country's new Prohibition law. Forced to assume the mantle of his household, young Brogan's gridiron dreams - and his youth - are over. Four years later, Brogan is beginning a new life in the automotive service industry with a young bride and a fresh outlook. But the shadow of his German-American father-in-law, a successful entrepreneur and now his employer, is extensive. Far from the glitz of urban centers at the height of the Roaring Twenties, Brogan struggles to establish himself on his own terms, and begins to form a bond with the working class Hoosiers that surround him. By his side is Greta, a graceful and strong woman, whose fierce love for Brogan and sharp intellect give her the fortitude to go toe-to-toe with her father - or with anyone else. Nursing higher aspirations, Brogan considers striking out on his own. But there are enemies aligning against his way of life, and the world at large is plummeting unknowingly towards economic peril and global war. Inspired by the life of the author's paternal grandfather, ONLY THE DYING is an ambitious, American story - a tale of family, faith, and the unsung lives of the modest, determined people that sustained a nation through its darkest times.

CROWNING contains six new, dynamic short stories from the author of WE'LL SEE YOU WHEN WE GET THERE. "Sweet Music, Pretty Flowers" re-imagines the nuptials of the author's grandparents in rural Indiana during the Roaring 20s. In "A Case of Necessity", a youthful priest struggling to live out his vocation in the Chilean desert is called to act in a crisis, with painful results. A young film director encounters obstacle after obstacle while attempting to bring to life a sequel to a celebrated police drama in "From the Set of Witness II". And in the stirring title story, a man who has suffered a terrible tragedy makes a chilling discovery on the construction site where he works. Diverse and surprisingly ambitious, Jude Joseph Lovell's second short fiction collection confirms his stature as a bold American voice.