Summer of '85 (Paperback or Softback)

New edition with a new preface by the author!

Summer of '85 is the story of an old summer love and a modern tragedy: part coming-of-age story, part mid-life crisis story, and a timely tale for our era.

In the summer of 1985 at the Jersey Shore, Cara Cassaday was Dan Fehr's first love. Since then, Dan has endured a series of mismatched relationships and unfulfilled dreams. Now his second marriage is in trouble and he's stuck writing for a mid-size newspaper in a small city. When he learns that Cara is among the victims of a gun massacre in a Philly hoagie shop, it triggers a chain of emotionally charged reactions as he confronts the realization of a lost love and a life lost: Cara was The One.

This is an intimate look at the long arm of tragedy, unfulfilled promise, and the tensions of our times.

Finalist for an American Fiction Award

Distinguished Favorite for the NYC Big Book Award

Winner of the Seven Hills Review Novel Excerpt Contest

"A cleverly imagined and well-orchestrated novel"--Nancy McKinley, author of St. Christopher on Pluto

"Summer of '85 dazzles us with the humanity of a passionate and sensitive man who acts on his feelings with little notion of the consequence and leaves us wondering if we should be more inclined to act in the same way."--Willard Cook, publisher of Epiphany Literary Journal

RICHARD FELLINGER is an award-winning author, former journalist, and longtime college writing instructor. He's the winner of the inaugural Thomas E. Kennedy Novel Award from Serving House Books for An American Girl. He's also the author of the novel Made To Break Your Heart and the story collection They Hover Over Us, winner of the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award. He's a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Flash Fiction Contest at Red Cedar Review. He lives with his wife in Harrisburg, PA.