THE MARINER'S GRANDSON

In Gupta’s debut novel, a middle-aged man faces a health crisis, a romantic crossroads, and a familial reckoning.

On his 50th birthday, Duncan Craig, a divorced cybersecurity specialist in Chicago, gets a colonoscopy. Unfortunately, the results of the doctor visit are nothing to celebrate: It turns out that he has pancreatic cancer, and the prognosis indicates that he may only have a year left to live. For a long time, Duncan’s been living a quiet life—working, avoiding companionship, and visiting his elderly father, Jack, in a nursing home. Now, he decides to join his co-workers at a bar, where he promptly gets the number of “the hottest barmaid in the city” before chatting with his co-worker Molly, who’s also interested in him. The evening proves to be a fleeting distraction, though; the next day, Duncan is consumed by thoughts of mortality, so he pays another visit to his dad, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, the novel tracks the progress of Rafael,a mysterious young man traveling from Madrid to Chicago in search of Jack. Who is Rafael, and how does he know the Craigs? Gupta’s prose style is straightforward and enjoyable, and the sections narrated by Duncan showcase the character’s good humor and self-deprecating modesty. For example, when a physician recommends that Duncan get his affairs in order, he thinks, “What affairs? I was a fifty-year-old cybersecurity specialist, a descendant of seafaring Scots. And what did I have to show for it?” But although Duncan doesn’t think much of himself, Gupta clearly feels differently. That said, the protagonist’s self-pity doesn’t offer much narrative tension, but the mystery of Rafael gives the novel an engaging purpose.

A heartfelt story in which the love of family makes one man’s pain easier to bear.