Overview

After a life-altering tragedy, the beloved characters of the novel Thin Blue Smoke find hope in friendship, forgiveness, and second chances. The Night Office continues the story of ex-big-leaguer and barbecue joint owner, LaVerne Williams, his right-hand man, A.B. Clayton, and Ferguson Glen, a hard-drinking priest and faded novelist. First introduced in the critically acclaimed novel Thin Blue Smoke, these three men struggle to rebuild their lives after an unspeakable tragedy. With the support of the fierce and stubborn women whose love will not let them be lost to despair, they begin to rediscover meaning, purpose, and even joy. The Night Office is a story about barbecue, baseball, and the blues, the hard work of hope, the inevitability of doubt, the necessity of forgiveness, and the restorative power of friendship, food, and music.

Full Product Details

9781968761585

Table of Contents

Reviews

""The Night Office-the much-anticipated sequel to Thin Blue Smoke-is a poignant literary reunion with believable and beloved characters. Set against a backdrop of doubt and anger, grief and regret, phony religion and real-life struggles (along with a fair amount of baseball, barbeque, and bourbon), there flickers throughout the novel the candle of a quiet faith. Doug Worgul has crafted a story that is both enchanting and authentic."" -Brian Zahnd, author of When Everything's on Fire ""What a grand delight to get to spend more time with the wonderful folks at Kansas City's LaVerne Williams Genuine BBQ & City Grocery! Narrating the time following the dramatic events at the end of Doug Worgul's Thin Blue Smoke, this sequel seamlessly continues Worgul's insightful evocation of deeply complicated characters navigating the world as best they can. With its richly textured backdrop, The Night Office is compelling in its examination of real life-with real problems, real doubts, real disappointments and challenges. But also, real love and community."" -Jennifer L. Holberg, Calvin University professor of English and director of the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing ""The Night Office offers exactly what I want from a sequel. Characters that I came to love in Thin Blue Smoke grow and find new ways to be in the world that they know personally is a very broken place. Novels should complicate our view of the world by helping us to see the way that beauty and tragedy and quotidian realities of life exist all mixed up together. The simple beauty of BBQ and friendship was at the center of Thin Blue Smoke. The Night Office builds upon the beauty of Thin Blue Smoke to include exploration of healing from trauma, calling, and making a new life. Sometimes everything that we think we want isn't enough, but what we didn't know we needed does the trick."" -Adam Shields, Bookwi.se ""The Night Office, the sequel to the masterful debut novel Thin Blue Smoke, confirms what I have long known about Doug Worgul's writing: faith is personal, memory is painful, and barbecue is best eaten (and cooked) among friends. Worgul returns to the familiar Kansas City streets that surround the beloved fictional barbecue joint, Smoke Meat, but goes beyond, wandering into deeper and more complicated emotional territory. Worgul's characters are so richly drawn that they feel like best friends waiting for you to turn the page, and that is why I was so thrilled to read The Night Office-to get back to my besties, Ferguson and Periwinkle, LaVerne and Angela, and to meet new ones. I was not disappointed. The sequel is an effortless read that keeps you happily in the world of barbecue and baseball while honoring the spirit of the original novel."" -Yvette Walker, opinion editor of The Kansas City Star and author of the crime fiction series, The Linda Radcliffe Chronicles

Author Information

Doug Worgul was born in Michigan in 1953 to a family of preachers and teachers. Since 1989, he has called Kansas City home. He recently retired from a career in journalism and marketing. He is married to Rebecca Sesler and has four daughters and eight grandchildren. Doug Worgul is the author of the novel Thin Blue Smoke. A reviewer on the UK website, Mr. B's Reading Emporium said Thin Blue Smoke is ""... as gentle and positive as a novel can be in the 21st century without being naff."" Among the hundreds of five-star reviews posted on Goodreads and Amazon, one reviewer said, ""... the prose will draw you in like a John Prine song."" Another reviewer called the book ""... beautifully written ... a master class in character development."" In 2012, The Englewood Review of Books named Thin Blue Smoke its Novel of the Year.

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