“A twisting, heart-wrenching journey into a marriage, a gripping thriller . . . Reardon grabs his readers on page one, then deftly ratchets up the suspense until the breathless ending.”—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling authorJulia Swann, mother of two young boys, is on the phone with her husband, Michael, when the call abruptly cuts out. It isn’t until later in the evening when she … evening when she discovers that something terrible has happened at Penn Station, where Michael was waiting for a train home.
Julia races to New York City to look for Michael, her panicked searching interwoven with memories of meeting and falling in love with the husband she’s now desperate to find. When someone finds a flyer she’s posted and tells her they may have seen her husband, her prayers seem to be answered. Yet as she tries to find him, her calls go unanswered. Did Michael survive? If so, why hasn’t he contacted her? Was he—or is he still—the man she fell in love with?
Part family drama, part tragic love story, The Real Michael Swann is a deftly plotted suspense novel with an unflinching portrait of a marriage at its heart, challenging us to confront the unthinkable—both in our country and in our own homes.
“Reardon masterfully delivers an intimate, heartbreaking portrayal of a family whose love, trust, and loyalty for each other is put to the ultimate test.”—Rhiannon Navin, author of Only Child
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The Real Michael Swann pulls you right in and leaves you gasping. It’s gripping, smart, and to-the-minute timely, with two memorable and powerfully sympathetic central characters.
Bryan Reardon’s compelling new novel lives at the intersection of ripped-from-the-headlines catastrophe and abiding, deeply personal human love. Julia and Michael’s marriage is so finely drawn that Julia’s crisis of faith in her husband felt every bit as crucial to me as the national horror unfolding around her. The marriage, at least as much as the mystery, kept me up late, with my heart in my throat, turning pages.
Wow. Just when you think you have it figured out..whoa. You don’t. Incredibly realistic, and completely relatable– I could not put it down.
Wow !!! So timely. And the ending was amazing. Totally enjoyed. A real winner !!!
It’s the thing that Americans who experienced the horror of September 11 fear the most: another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Julia Swann is on the phone with her husband, Michael, who is en route home via Penn Station, when the line suddenly goes dead. And then Julia learns that a bomb detonated in Penn Station. Without thinking rationally, Julia heads to New York City in a panicked attempt to find Michael. But, of course, the roads are blocked, security is out in force, and she cannot get anywhere near Penn Station. She manages to find her way to an all night print shop when the clerk assists her with printing fliers and she begins posting them around the city. As the hours tick by, she continues attempting to reach Michael, without success. Reports begin coming in that Michael has been spotted on the move in the city and then, it seems, in an attempt to make his way home to Julia, and those reports spur Julia’s desperate quest to determine if Michael is, in fact, still alive and, perhaps, injured. Via duel narratives, author Bryan Reardon creates a suspenseful story about a day that Americans never want to live through again and the impact of terrorism on one family in particular. The tale is full of plot twists and stunning developments which would be spoiled if further explanation is provided. Reardon brilliantly pulls readers into the thoughts, memories, and doubts that characterize a marriage. The Real Michael Swann is a book that readers will not be able to put down until they learn the fate of Michael and Julia, and will resonate long after its shocking conclusion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
The Real Michael Swann by Bryan Reardon is a novel that is utterly chilling in its realistic prose. It is not only the unthinkable experience of one family, but a rather bleak reality of our times, that leaves no one unscathed in its wake.Not the community the family lives in, the east coast, the whole of the U.S., and definitely not the reader experiencing this harrowing tale. When a bomb goes off in Penn station the world of Michael Swann, his wife Julia Swann, and their 2 young boys is blown to pieces, never again to be the same. The devastating consequences play out in the narrative through Julia’s current circumstances, Michael’s new status as a survivor of a major catastrophe, and the couples memories through Julia’s interpretation of their past together. The pages fly, as each section is super short, sometimes only a page in length, but always filled with information that pushes you forward through the rubble that is now their lives, and to the mammoth discovery of a tragic truth of epic porportions. Of all the things I thought and wondered, mainly: how are they going to get through this, how are they going to do that, how can this end,…. I never saw what happened coming, not in the least, and when it did I had chills. Overwhelming feelings surged through me throughout the whole novel, and I must admit I was close to crying more than a couple times and actually did once. This novel is different than most, it’s not a cheap thrill type of read. It’s something that bouroughs deep into the soul, it reaches into our society pulls out the ugly truth and puts it’s nasty vileness in your face. It is at once frightening, tragic, haunting, and painful. Deeply mesmerizing and filled to the brim with almost every feeling there is. The Real Michael Swann is filled with hope and devastation, truth and brutality, love and loss, and the closeup of one family’s struggle through it all; as well as the world’s struggle with fear and hate, and all of the hell encompassed within those two words. Bryan Reardon’s created world is a realistic mirror of our own, has a mega twist within its pages that will chill you to the bone, and is ultimately a lesson in which all of us need to be aware of and learn from, and so it should be read by everyone.My advice is do not miss this one! Asap pick up a copy of The Real Michael Swann. I am touched by this amazing novel and feel honored to have had an opportunity to read it through Penguin First to Read
a real page turned, I enjoyed this book very much, almost hated it to end.
Kept you guessing. A surprise ending.
This is the best book I have read in a long time. Stayed up till 4am to finish it!
Interesting book that holds your attention.
I loved this book! With the world it is today I could just picture that this would be true.
The Real Michael Swann takes you on a wild, suspenseful ride that has you holding your breath from the very first page to the startling, shocking twist at the end. Amid terrifying tragedy and desolation, Bryan Reardon masterfully delivers an intimate, heartbreaking portrayal of a family whose love, trust, and loyalty for each other is put to the ultimate test.
What begins as a portrait of a modern marriage swiftly evolves into a shocking, complex examination of the American Dream — what it was, what it has become, and what remains. Both a love story and a brilliant social commentary, The Real Michael Swann moved me deeply and kept me turning pages deep into the night.
The Real Michael Swann is a riveting read, pertinent and relevant to the times we now live in, with characters that keep the reader emotionally involved right up until its almost shocking ending. A highly recommended and insightful work of fiction.
This is my first book by Bryan Reardon but it certainly won’t be my last. I spent most of the day yesterday reading The Real Michael Swann – once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It’s a tense drama and a story about love within a family and friends. This is one that you don’t want to miss!
Julia is on the phone with her husband Michael who wanted to let her know that trains out of Penn Station were being delayed. When the call gets dropped, she is concerned but her panic soon sets in when there is a TV bulletin that a bomb had gone off in Penn Station and many were dead and injured. She leaves her two sons with a friend and tries to drive to NYC to see if she can find her husband only to be turned away because no traffic was being allowed into the city. The entire situation gets even worse and her house is surrounded by the media because her husband is being accused of being the bomber. Interspersed with chapters on Julia’s quest to find her husband are flashback chapters to when they met and fell in love. The race for Julia to find her husband and clear his name makes this a real page turner.
I loved this book. I thought that Julia was a well written character and her life with her husband and family were very real – flaws and all. The plot of the novel was very believable in today’s world and the book was fantastic.
Thanks to First to Read for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
This is one of those books that sticks with you even after you finish it because the ending is so completely unexpected. It blew me away, left me stunned. Michael Swann is at Penn Station. He’s talking to his wife on the phone while waiting to catch his train home. There’s an explosion and their call gets cut off. When Michael’s wife learns it was a bomb, she goes rushing to the scene, determined to find Michael. Chaos ensues, of course. Is her husband alive? Dead? Was he involved somehow?
The best book I’ve read so far this year. Couldn’t out it down!