SUMMERLONG - Softcover

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

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

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

"Bakopoulos is very much his own writer, and it is his distinct humanity and sense of humor that make this story so emotionally rewarding. This is that rare, contemporary suburban novel with characters the reader can actually embrace in spite of their many flaws."--Publishers Weekly

"A witty read about likeable people behaving badly."--People

"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

"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

"A dishy warm-weather read... Bakopoulos draws readers into the intimate life of married couple Claire and Don Lowry as they wrestle with parenting, failed ambitions and the search for middle-aged happiness. There's sex, drugs and more sex in this steamy summer tale, with an intensely emotional undercurrent."--Wisconsin State Journal

"Attention vacationers: Award-winning author Dean Bakopoulos... has served up a sultry story that fits perfectly in your carry-on...[but] This isn't just a story of people enjoying a free-love bacchanal; Summerlong also explores the consequences and heartbreak of testing the limits of relationships."--BookPage

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

The tensions beneath the surface of Claire and Don Lowry's seemingly contented marriage explode in the bedrooms and backyards of a small town over the course of a long, hot summer, as they discover that married life is not what they had predicted.