Turtel, Daniel H-Greetings from Asbury Park

In a small, seaside city on the Jersey Shore, three half-siblings confront the death of a distant and bullying patriarch. They now have the chance to imagine new relationships and new futures, ones that would have been near-unthinkable while their father was alive.

At the heart of the novel are Casey and Gabrielle who are pushed toward a brief but torrential affair composed of equal parts love for one another and resentment for their father. Caught in their crossfire are the conservative religious communities that border Asbury Park, the longtime locals who have been pushed to the fringe by the shore's revitalization, and the legendary town upon which the whole world seems to converge. Slowly, however, they come to understand that everything depends--their future, their happiness--on whether they can face themselves.

Wise, perceptive, and provocative, Greetings from Asbury Park is a remarkable literary debut in the tradition of great American novels such as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. It is a deep interrogation of place that depicts flawed characters as they breakthrough to adulthood, truth, and to a moral relationship with the world.