The End

Product Description

Distant events have thrown us into long, comet-like orbits, far from our origins, but eventually we will circle back on people whose lives preceded & gave rise to our own. We may recognise them immediately. Or else we may meet a stranger for the first time, & while shaking his hand feel vividly that an ancient obligation has finally been kept.

A small, incongruous man receives a devastating letter: his son has died in a POW camp in Korea. It is August 15, 1953, the day of a tumultuous street carnival in Elephant Park, & Italian immigrant enclave in Ohio. The man is Rocco La Grassa, & his many years of dogged toil, paternal devotion & steadfast Christian faith are about to come to a crashing end. He is the first of many exquisitely drawn characters we meet that day, each of whom will come to their own conclusion.

The End follows an elderly abortionist, an enigmatic drapery seamstress, a teenage boy & a jeweller deep into the heart of a crime that will twist all of their lives. Against a background of immigration, broken loyalties & racial hostility, we at last return to August 15, 1953 & see everything Rocco saw