Sorry I Wasn't What You Needed

Sporting a nagging conscience and a chip on his shoulder, C.J. Neubauer books a flight home on his girlfriend's credit card to bury his father and try to make sense of what led him to take his own life. All he has to go on is a note that reads, "Sorry I wasn't what you needed."

C.J. Neubauer's family was dysfunctional long before his mother walked out. At eight, he was just too young to realize it. Now 32, he has spent his entire adult life estranged from the people who should mean the most to him. But when his father kills himself, C.J. is thrust right back into the multi-fronted battle he escaped upon graduating college. Back in his childhood home, C.J. sifts through his dad's belongings, uncovering one secret after the next, revealing how little he truly understood his parents-and himself.

Fans of Jonathan Tropper and Matthew Norman will enjoy this book, which explores the familial bonds that obligate us for life-and beyond.

James Bailey is the author of The Greatest Show on Dirt (2012), Nine Bucks a Pound (2014), and Sorry I Wasn't What You Needed (2015). He grew up in Seattle, spent most of the 1990s in North Carolina, and has since settled in Rochester, N.Y., where he lives with his wife and super-hero obsessed son.