Abraham's Bay & Other Stories - Hardcover

Fiction. The characters in Jack Greer's ABRAHAM'S BAY & OTHER STORIES have set sail for islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean—some are restless, some curious, others are unhappy, while others are in love with roaming. Inevitably, these small boat sailors haul their personal histories along, their hubris, their failures, and their frustrations. Some sail alone, others are looking to reunite, while others are parting for good. Rather than record-breaking feats of circumnavigation, the stories of ABRAHAM'S BAY dramatize ordinary struggles with self and sea, where the protagonists often seem to exist at the edges of the larger world.

Nearly all storytelling is about people setting out on journeys and encountering conflicts along the way—the compelling storyteller gives us insights into their character and brings us into their conflicts and struggles to resolve them. Jack Greer is a compelling storyteller—his lean narrative style is graceful and exact, anchored in a sailor's competence that is always attentive to the sea and its beauty but also alert to its dangers.

Jack Greer grew up on the Chesapeake Bay and has sailed since childhood a number of the stories in ABRAHAM'S BAY & OTHER STORIES have their origins in a year-long sail to the Dominican Republic and beyond. Formerly Communications Director of the University of Maryland Sea Grant College, he has published hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, largely about the Chesapeake Bay. His poems and stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. He and his wife Bobbie are to embark on their third year of sailing in the Caribbean.