Theater Near You

What if you were suddenly confronted with a movie version of the most traumatic year of your life?

That’s what happen to Ed Hinton. Fifty-ish, facing a failing marriage and a return bout of cancer, Ed is obsessed with the past and particularly that one poignant year – the year he took off college to hit the road with a beautiful aspiring actress named Jule and a rich-kid-turned-drifter named Patrick. Complicating their lives is Mae, a retired carnival stripper with a crude candor and a knack for driving them in perilous directions.

Jule recently starred in a movie about that year, taking liberties that infuriated Ed. So, with his health uncertain, Ed retreats to the attic to write his own version, and the novel proceeds along two narrative lines, past and present ultimately converging in a satisfying finish.

Theater Near You, written by Bob Levin, is at once a coming-of-age story, a midlife-crisis story and a cancer story of striking honesty. It is about love and loss, the enduring toll of illness, and it’s about history – personal, unsettling, forever with us.

What readers are saying about Theater Near You:

“How can one sit down to read a book and be breathless after only two chapters? That is the power of Bob Levin’s writing. He sweeps you away with great scenes and delightful characters. This is a brilliant work of art.”  – Roy MacGregor, best-selling Canadian author

“Theater Near You features one of the most searingly funny early scenes in memory. It is a story of taking chances, of young sunlit love and middle-age longing, but most of all a story of life roaring ahead despite cancer; of life overtaking cancer.”   – Leslie Scrivener, author of Terry Fox: His Story

“Theater Near You grabs you from the start with an unsolved mystery and ends with an explosive revelation. Along the way, the story captures the intensity and passion that accompanies a young man’s first love, along with the pain of loss and the final reckoning that comes with age.  The cast of characters, some former circus performers and a troubled youth from a wealthy family, are unforgettable. A riveting read.” – Dana Flavelle

“This is a captivating tale of cancer-plagued Ed at two stages of life: decades ago, footloose and ruled by infatuation with the gorgeous stripper’s-daughter Jule, and now, in an awkwardly crumbling marriage to fellow editor Susan. Exquisite dialogue and storytelling transport the reader effortlessly back and forth across time.” – Robert Marshall

Other author titles:
Away Game

Purchase the following *digital editions:
Kobo
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ISBN: 978-1-77257-229-2 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-77257-230-8 (eBook)