LOST SOULS AT THE NEPTUNE INN

A sweeping intergenerational story of the intertwined lives of two people who find themselves staying briefly at the Neptune Inn in New Rochelle, New York.

Dillard Fox is a child, a young man, a middle-aged stepfather, and an aging man in this book. He is also a musician, a teaching assistant, a receptionist, a construction laborer, and a bakery assistant. Emilia Mae Wingo is a baby, a teen, a single mother, a middle-aged woman, and an aging grandmother. Apart from a stint as a hotel cleaner and helper in her teens—resulting in an unplanned pregnancy—she spends her life working in her parents’ bakery. Dillard is gay; Emilia Mae is not. The two marry one another because of their deep yearning for love and comfort and home and family. In the mid-20th century, these options are not available for Dillard with a man—though by the time he meets Emilia Mae and her daughter, Alice, his heart has already been broken by a secret relationship with Nick that ended abruptly and unexpectedly, leaving him unmoored. Emilia Mae, once a colicky baby, has grown up with the knowledge that her mother believes she was born with the devil inside her. It is Alice who binds Dillard and Emilia Mae together. In this sweeping tale that extends through much of the 20th century before ending in 1980s New York City, the reader meets Dillard’s and Emilia Mae’s parents, friends, and lovers and is given a deep, layered look at what events, people, choices, and secrets shape Dillard, Emilia Mae, and Alice into the complicated individuals they ultimately become.

A bittersweet tale that follows the twists and turns of love and loss and the painfulness and joy of life.