The Duration: A Novel

It’s been 100 years since tragedy struck the rolling woods around Fleur-de-Lys, one of dozens of Gilded Age estates dotting the western Massachusetts town of Gable. In Gable, they both begrudge and venerate their past, and even now that health spas and corporate yoga retreats have replaced the mansions of a bygone era, the ghosts of yesteryear linger. Growing up there means navigating those ghosts, and the even more pernicious pitfalls of adolescence, until you’re lucky enough to find your footing. Unless you’re not. Boston attorney Pete Johansson finds himself reuniting in Gable with his troubled childhood pal Chickie, who has returned to the wintry town of their youth determined to solve past mysteries and right the wrongs he can’t seem to shake. Despite–or because of–his best intentions, Pete is drawn reluctantly into Chick’s reckless orbit, straining a bedrock friendship and putting them both at risk. Set in the haunted hills of Berkshire County, The Duration is a love story about the bonds we form in childhood and the ways they both encumber and sustain us.