August 28, 2017
One summer day in 1992, 10-year-old Dean Fleming, the protagonist of Catalano’s gripping first novel, is waiting in line with his brother, Jason, and their father for autographs of the Munchkins at the annual Chittenago, N.Y., festival celebrating L. Frank Baum, local hero and author of the Oz books. When their father briefly leaves them, Wayne and Carol Flowers abduct the boys and take them to a secluded cottage on Lake Oneida. Jason dies at the hands of their captors, but Dean manages to escape by swimming across the lake. When the police try to question Dean to gain his assistance in finding Wayne and Carol, he remains mute. Wracked with guilt over his failure to save his brother, he pushes his parents away. Even the people of Chittenago find themselves changed as their lives intertwine with Dean’s in the years that follow. This tale of loss, punishment, and the struggle for forgiveness grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go. Agent: Kirsten Carleton, Prospect Agency.
October 15, 2017
Chittenango, New York, is a small town with a singular distinction. It's the birthplace of L. Frank Baum, and each year the town stages the Oz Fest. But at the 1991 Fest, Dean Fleming, 10, and his younger brother Jason, 8, are abducted. Jason is murdered, but Dean escapes by swimming across a lake, towing Jason's body. Catalano's first novel takes on an ambitious challenge: exploring the effect of the tragedy on Dean, his family, and the entire town, employing numerous characters, and scuffling along over two-plus decades. Foremost is Dean, who knew, as he dragged Jason's body across the lake, that he should have been the victim. Nine years later, Dean is a local menace, repeating the twelfth grade before moving on to Oxy, speed, and heroin. Post tragedy, Chittenango's decline is largely a Rust Belt story of job loss and opioid addiction. But the mayor's efforts to resurrect the Oz Fest, featuring the last surviving Munchkin, is both cringe-worthy and funny. The story is largely a bleak one, but there are flashes of Richard Russo in Catalano's feeling for the rough edges of upstate New York.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)