Summerlong

Summerlong is the Great White Midlife Crisis novel that Jonathan Franzen has tried to write (and failed) and Jonathan Lethem has tried to write (and failed) and Michael Chabon (wisely) half-avoided ever trying to write. But Dean Bakopoulos pulls it off (NPR.org)

For a novel steeped in marital atrophy and midlife ennui, Summerlong offers plenty of humor in unexpected moments (New York Times)

A witty read about likeable people behaving badly (People magazine)

A couple in a crumbling marriage find themselves entwined with two lost 20-somethings during a hot, sticky Iowan summer... Dean Bakopoulos, who lives in Iowa himself, crafts a surprisingly steamy Midwestern landscape and a set of characters who will do anything to stay afloat as their lives fall apart (Esquire)

[A] sexy but surprisingly poignant new novel...Bakopoulos's greatest talent is his ability to mix ribald comedy with heartfelt sorrow (Ron Charles, Washington Post)

Dean Bakopoulos is a great talent - everything he writes is full of insight and inspiration and the best kind of divine comedy (Lorrie Moore)

Summerlong is Dean Bakopoulos at his finest: daringly funny, heartbreakingly sad, and forever on the watch for redemption. This is a book for any season, any reader, anywhere - it shimmers with magic, lust, and love (Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs)

Summer gets weird in a Midwestern town when married couples start behaving recklessly - as if, my God, they're not married at all! Bakopoulos...uses the adults' bizarre behavior to examine ideas about marriage, happiness and that oh-so-slim line between fantasy and infidelity (Miami Herald)

There is no better guide through a hot summer in the heartland than Dean Bakopoulos...Lovers chasing all over the joint, the glorious wreckage, and Bakopoulos with his keen eye, his sympathy and his wit, there to see all (Jane Hamilton)

All the threads Bakopoulos has been expertly weaving suddenly begin to connect, and suddenly everything fits in a way that is as dazzling as the firefires that dot the shore, bringing a sense of absolute wonder and even a kind of hope (San Francisco Chronicle)

A Blackfriars paperback original or fans of Jonathan Franzen, a brilliant and funny novel about the illusion of perfection in relationships or in work.