A FINE PLACE

When Tony Santangelo's friends pressure him into participating in what had been intended as a beating, one young man dies and another's life is changed forever.

Tony, who had few prospects before he was sent to prison for the crime, later returns to his stagnant and repressive neighborhood: the Italian American enclave of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a "fine place" for a racially motivated crime. He also returns to a father who can't hold a job and elderly relatives who have been bickering for decades. His great aunt and grandmother smother him with kindness and guilt, while his bitter, sarcastic grandfather is always "in a mood."

Chapters alternate between past and present, most narrated by Tony's grandmother, though his grandfather, aunt, father, and Tony himself also speak. With his clannish, close-minded neighborhood still wallowing in fear, anger, and racism ten years after the crime, Tony must confront his demons by himself. This powerful, unflinching first novel, based on real events.

Nicholas Montemarano's latest novel is "The Book of Why" (Little, Brown, 2013). His previous books are the short story collection "If the Sky Falls" and the novel "A Fine Place." His short stories have been published in magazines such as Esquire, Zoetrope: All-Story, Tin House, DoubleTake, The Gettysburg Review, and AGNI. His writing has won many awards including a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He teaches at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.