Drops on the Water: Stories about Growing Up from a Father and Son

Drops on the Water is a book about the childhood experiences of a father and son, and their gradual entrance into adulthood. It traces the similarities and differences between distinct generations in their unique geographical environments. From the suburbs and fairgrounds of the United States to the majesty and beauty of the Swiss Alps, from a beach in Nicaragua to a gum plantation in Zululand, these stories jump between Europe and America, east and west coast, and the African continent. They trace the inheritance of World War II, of German nationality, of the shock of a friend's suicide to a classmate's overdose. The anxieties of early love and rural small town life are balanced against changes seen in the familial sphere across generations. Apartheid inequities, corporal punishment in strict prep schools, a friend's illicit affair with an African maid, hitchhiking barefoot, and a scheduled Ping-Pong match with the Prince of Lichtenstein, all coalesce in a book that brings to life the circumstances that bind its authors to history, family, generation, and place. Eric G. Müller is a musician, teacher and writer living in upstate New York. He was born in Durban, South Africa, and studied literature and history at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Müller continued his studies in England and Germany before moving to America. He has published three novels and a collection of poetry. Matthew Zanoni Müller was born in Bochum, Germany and grew up in Eugene, Oregon and Upstate New York. After earning his BA from Emerson College, he received his MFA from Warren Wilson's MFA Program for Writers. He teaches in his local Community College System and currently shuttles between western Mass and upstate New York. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals and this is his first book.