Blue Summer
Publisher: Islandport Press$20.95A riveting coming-of-age novel told in retrospect by a washed-out taxi-driving musician from Baxter, Maine, who must come to terms with his past by returning to Maine and confronting the secrets and violence in his family.
Closer All the Time
Publisher: Islandport Press$19.95The residents of Baxter, Maine, are going nowhere fast–but not for lack of trying. In this artfully written jewel of a novel, award-winning author Jim Nichols strings together the bittersweet stories of people bound together by shared geography and the insular nature of small-town life. There’s Johnny Lunden, a well-meaning war veteran with a penchant for the local bar and a deep, but doomed, love for his family; eight-year-old Ted Soule, who shares a first kiss with the Ophelia-like Nadia, the daughter of his Russian neighbors; and Tomi Lambert who watches the confused adults around her struggle to accept their fates. In a wonderfully authentic New England setting, Nichols explores the nature of connection–hoped for, missed, lost, and found. Winner of the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Best Fiction.
Closer All the Time
Publisher: Islandport Press$24.95The residents of small-town Baxter are going nowhere fast—but not for lack of trying. In this deftly written novel, veteran author Jim Nichols strings together the bittersweet stories of several different characters bound together by shared geography and the insular nature of small-town life. With the Atlantic coastal waters as a backdrop, Nichols artfully explores the nature of connection—hoped for, missed, lost, and found—in Closer All the Time; that very special novel that delivers quick-moving, compelling storytelling with a lasting emotional wallop.