Shadows

What makes a marriage of two decades begin to unravel? There are no simple answers.

Alex and Miriam met-cute at the famous Strand bookstore in Manhattan. It was love at first sight for both of them. Their marriage was blissful. They had a son. All wonderful.

But in every family there are secrets and lies, and theirs was no different.

An unloving father, The suicide of a beloved sibling. A hidden diary, revealing more secrets, An unknown sibling. A son who is gay and wants nothing more than to be on the stage. An unrewarding job. A lousy boss. A sexual predator. Suddenly a life going nowhere.

But there is something more. Alex is on a quest, not just for knowledge and truth. He wants desperately to be a good husband, a good father, a good son. He doesn't know if he can achieve this but he knows he must try.

Robert Boris Riskin has been writing fiction for most of his adult life. He studied playwriting at the University of Michigan but switched to fiction shortly thereafter. While trying to become a writer he worked at a variety of jobs from dishwasher to bus-boy to factory work to owning retail stores selling discounted clothing to high-fashion women.He has published stories in The New Yorker and numerous literary magazines. He has also published three mystery novels featuring a retired English teacher and Shakespeare maven who solves crimes while quoting Shakespeare.A Brooklyn native, he has traveled the world, even lived in France for two years while studying at the Sorbonne.But New York is where his heart is. He now lives in Sag Harbor, where the bay and the ocean are nearby and the air is filled with creativity.