Joe Meno

"Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and...

"This ambitious, adventurous writer . . . recalls Anton Chekhov with his amused appreciation of human foibles."-Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune The sky is falling for the Caspers, a family of cowards. When the parents decide to separate, this family is forced to appreciate the cloudiness of this modern age.

From the award-winning author of The Boy Detective Fails: A novel of two brothers growing up on the other side of the tracks.
 
“A trailer park in the Plains town of Tenderloin is the setting of this crusty coming-of-age debut, which features some of the liveliest characters just this side of believable that one is apt to meet in a contemporary novel. The first-person narrator is a moral but susceptible eleven-year-old...

A haunted ex-con returns to his hometown. Luce Lemay is out on parole three years after an awful tragedy sent him to prison. In his small Illinois town, he does his best to find hope: in a new job at the local Gas-N-Go; in his companion and fellow ex-con, Junior Breen, who spells out puzzling messages to the unquiet ghosts of his past; and finally, in the arms of the lovely but reckless Charlene. But sorrow and violence lie in his path, in this suspenseful...

Los peinados de los malditos es la historia de Brian, un inadaptado estudiante de escuela católica, y Gretchen, una dura chica punk aficionada tanto a las peleas como a grabar casets para su amigo, a quien considera un tonto. Los sucesos ocurren a principios de los años noventa, cuando el movimiento punk creció en el sur de Chicago. La narración de Brian también es el relato de una amistad y el descubrimiento de su sexualidad, frente a una sociedad...

This anthology collects nearly a century of Chicago crime fiction.