The Far Bank (THE OLTRARNO PASSAGES Book 2)

Eli Pelletier has finally built a life that fits him. A small apartment north of Portland. Niles, the boyfriend he wasn’t sure he’d ever find. Graham Tierney down the road, the father figure he hadn’t known he needed. Then, on an ordinary Thursday afternoon, it all goes away.

Kieran Callahan, a twenty-two-year-old Portland paramedic, becomes the unlikely link between Eli and the boyfriend he lost. A working-class kid from South Portland, raised Catholic, with no idea what to do with his future. He and Eli orbit one another for months, friendship long before anything else.

As the year turns, the circle around Eli holds. Graham, eighteen months out from his own loss. Anthony, longer widowered still. Levi finishing high school, Michael starting college — both trying to support Eli while finding their way around each other.

Threaded throughout is The Novice’s Chapel, the second of Graham’s Oltrarno novels — its waiting Marco and watchful novice mirroring what Eli is only beginning to understand.

The Far Bank is a novel about grief and the mercy of being known. About the families we assemble when the ones we have aren’t enough. About the people who walk in on the worst day of our lives — and stay.

And about giving yourself permission to live.