{"product_id":"please-dont-come-back-from-the-moon-9780156031677","title":"Please Don't Come Back from the Moon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Families, heartbreak, political and social comedy-there is little that Dean Bakopoulos doesn't grasp in an articulate, wittily perceptive, and soulful way, before he hands it back to the reader as literary art.\u003cem\u003e Please Don't Come Back from the Moon\u003c\/em\u003e is an original and brilliant first work of fiction.\" -Lorrie Moore\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe summer Michael Smolij turns sixteen, his father disappears. One by one other men also vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit where their fathers before them had lived, raised families, and, in a more promising era, worked. One man props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. \"I'm going to the moon,\" it reads. \"I took the cash.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wives drink, brawl, and sleep around, gradually settling down to make new lives and shaking off the belief in an American dream that, like their husbands, has proven to be a thing of the past. Unable to leave the neighborhood their fathers abandoned, Michael and his friends stumble through their twenties until the restlessness of the fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a haunting, unforgettable novel for anyone who has ever been left longing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBakopoulos, Dean:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eDean Bakopoulos is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003ePlease Don't Come Back from the Moon\u003c\/i\u003e, a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book, and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is on the faculty at Iowa State University and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50503092601106,"sku":"9780156031677","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0391bebb-aafd-412e-96fb-8a255544a244.jpg?v=1730782351","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/please-dont-come-back-from-the-moon-9780156031677","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}