Offered in Secret

“Connelly takes us on a poignant, disarming, and often funny literary journey exploring loss, family loyalty, and the buried roots of the parent-child bond.”

—Eric Lichtblau, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, author of The Nazis Next Door

“For anyone who has ever had a mother… Part family memoir, part investigative odyssey, Offered in Secret is the story of one son’s reluctant quest to find the ideal final resting place for his mother’s ashes. Connelly’s humorous and heart-wrenching narrative brings readers along for the ride for his often uneasy adventures as he confronts old family friends, leery strangers, and, ultimately, himself. Finely wrought and affecting, Offered in Secret reminds readers that in seeking to honor the memory of those who are gone, we might just unearth a little redemption for ourselves.”

—Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls of Atomic City, The Last Castle, and We Gather Together

“Much more than a memoir, this is a sweet, wry, clear-eyed retelling of a story that will resonate with just about anyone who’s taken a road trip with family. I can only hope it encourages all of us to consider our loved ones with as much honesty and care.”

—Celeste Headlee, NPR anchor and author of Speaking of Race

About the Author

Stuart Connelly has been writing professionally for more than thirty years. A graduate of Syracuse University’s prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Stuart has written speeches for Fortune 500 executives, reported for daily newspapers, edited a national magazine, and – at a career low point – once wrote a handful of jokes for the White House.

His work has been taught at the Algonkian Art of Fiction Writer’s Workshop alongside such luminaries of the craft as Mark Twain, Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka, and Raymond Carver.

Stuart is a National Educational Press Association Award winner for his work with Scholastic Publishing and was the founder of the San Francisco-based advertising agency Topeka.

He has co-authored two award-winning non-fiction biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clarence B. Jones – Behind The Dream and Last of the Lions.

In addition, his journalism has appeared in New Yorker, USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Huffington Post and Al Jazeera America.

He made his feature film directorial debut with the 2013 thriller The Suspect.

He currently divides his time between New York City and rural Pennsylvania, which is of course not as useful as multiplying it.