Pathos Rising

Readers will be glad to know that another book from Walter Roers, author of The Pact, a novel of boys, friendship and tragedy set in 1948 Minneapolis, has finally arrived.  Roers centers his second novel Pathos Rising around the friendships of four men in a story narrated by Hank Blaine, a retired Bloomington, Minnesota, math teacher and novelist.  Hank's moral core has been upended by the death of his son-in-law in Iraq.  Beneath his Minnesota-nice exterior is a man who struggles with the fact that the love he feels for his wife, daughter, and grandson cannot seem to stem the tide of his desire for the attention of a beautiful and younger woman at his health club. Roers' characters have lingered on in my memory long after I read the final page.  Like Hank Blaine, I have considered the many ways the story could have gone, turning them over in my mind, and wondering.  Every book club that has ever read The Pact will want to read Pathos Rising.  This novel will spark discussion, empathy, and opinion.""  Maureen Millea Smith, Minnesota Book Award-winning author of When Charlotte Comes Home.