Will Boast thought he’d lost his family, until a deeply held secret revealed a second chance he never thought he’d have.
Having already lost his mother and only brother, twenty-four-year-old Will Boast finds himself absolutely alone when his father dies of alcoholism. Numbly settling the matters of his father’s estate, Boast is deep inside his grief when he stumbles upon documents revealing a … revealing a secret his father had intended to keep: He’d had another family before Will’s — a wife and two sons in England.
This revelation leads to a flood of new questions. Did his father abandon this first family, or was he pushed away? Still reeling from loss, Boast is forced to reconsider the fundamental truths of his childhood and to look for traces of the man his father might truly have been. Setting out in search of his half brothers, he attempts to reconcile their family history with his own, testing each childhood memory under the weight of his father’s secret. Moving between the Midwest and England, from scenes of his youth to the tentative discovery of his new family, Boast writes with visceral beauty about grief, memory, and his slow and tender journey to a new kind of love.
With the piercing gaze of a novelist, Boast transforms the pain and confusion of his family history into an achingly poignant portrait of resilience, revising the stories he’s inherited to refashion both his past and his present. Heartbreaking and luminous, Epilogue is the stunning account of a young man’s struggle to understand all that he has lost and found, and to forge a new life for himself along the way.
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I enjoyed the fact that it was REAL! Since this is based on Will’s own life, the struggles, hopes, dreams,etc are factual. You see him coming to grips with his life, it’s positives and disappointments.
Dark.
The characters were well developed. It held my interest. Interesting read. A good old fashioned novel. 3.5/5
A soulful journey of someone who might otherwise have turned out differently in this world, but who persevered, embraced and welcomed all aspects of family. I loved this book and want to read all that Mr. Boast writes. Can’t say more than that about any book.
Keeps repeating things like the person reading didn’t comprehend so he has to say it again.
Not what I expected so was pleased to find it. It is so rare today to find a book that I do not want to stop reading.
It wasn’t interesting enough to hold my interest.
Great Read
This book reads like it was never edited. He had an interesting story if it could have been put together better.
I could not get into this book.
Interesting. I think the main character would manage his life events a little better if he weren’t drunk or hung over so much of the time. Does show the tragedy of a father who was a functional alcoholic who’s sons basically become functional alcoholics. Seemed like the found family was a mixed bag as far as benefit to the main character, and he …
I found this book difficult to follow the sequencing in his life. It seemed to jump from one time and subject to another but in no particular order that I could determine.
Very disjointed. Too much going back and forth.
An amazing book written by a very young man who was able to write his memoirs at an early age. Honest and sensitive.
Enjoyed the book very much… great detail about the characters…read in two days. Couldn’t put it down
It was so well written I kept thinking it was a novel instead of a memoir. The author kept filling in the story with memory past and memory recent and pack again. His ability to reveal all his conflicting thoughts and emotions was truly breathtaking. He let the reader ride his thoughts and emotions throughout the story, discovering each reveal …
It jumped around and seemed disjointed.
An extremely well written true life account of a young man who experienced tragedy at a young age and wrote an honest account of his life so far … he still has much living to do and I’d be very interested if he writes another as he goes through more of his life. Heartfelt. Honest. Tragic and a book I couldn’t put down. I highly recommend this …
Wonderful writing, very sad story.