Summerlong

Published by Ecco/HarperCollins in June 2015, Summerlong tells the story of Claire and Don Lowry, who discover that married life isn’t quite as they’d predicted.

One night Don, a father of two, leaves his house for an evening stroll, only to wake up the next morning stoned and sleeping in a hammock next to a young woman he barely knows. His wife Claire leaves the house on this same night to go on a midnight run — only to find herself bumming cigarettes and beer outside the all-night convenience store.

 “In summer 2012, I had insomnia and walked around Grinnell in the middle of the night,” says author Dean Bakopoulos, assistant professor of English. “It’s a great place to walk at night — safe, deserted, pretty. The setting I knew better than any other was what happens at 2:30 in the morning in Grinnell. That’s how the first scene came to me. It’s four insomniacs at a Kum & Go. I think it’s the only novel — it’s the only novel that I know of — that starts at a Kum & Go.”

Summerlong is Bakopoulos’ third novel, following Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon and My American Unhappiness. He has Summerlong readings and signings scheduled in June at bookstores in Chicago; Milwaukee; Madison, Wis.; Iowa City, Iowa; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Ann Arbor, Mich. A launch event is being held in Grinnell.