Gary Wilson’s debut novel is set in Bartlett’s Junction, Kansas, “An All-American City” and proud sponsor of the state’s largest 4th of July fireworks display. The story details the lives of Ronnie Blue, son of a local junk yard owner, and John Klein, son of the president of the town’s only bank. Once close high school friends, the young men subsequently drift apart, only to reconnect five years later during a fateful Independence Day celebration in their hometown that leaves one of the men murdered and the other eventually hounded to death.
An intensely moving story, Wilson’s novel takes a long and honest look at the economic and class divisions in our society that produce people such as Ronnie Blue. Wilson’s depth of character, coupled with a sophisticated style and poetic wordplay, makes SING RONNIE BLUE a book that appeals to a broad and appreciative audience.
Read an excerpt from Sing, Ronnie Blue
– Stephen Dixon, author most recently of His Wife Leaves Him