Rick Novak

The Doctor and Mr. Dylan Rick Novak

Publisher Marketing: Stanford anesthesia professor Dr. Nico Antone believes his son's only chance to get accepted into a prestigious college is for Johnny to graduate at the top of the class in a small rural high school. The doctor leaves his wretched marriage in California to relocate to his boyhood hometown, Hibbing, Minnesota, also the boyhood home of rock legend Bob Dylan. His son becomes a small town academic star while Dr. Antone befriends Bobby Dylan, a nurse anesthetist renamed and reinvented as a younger version of the iconic singer. A love of Bob Dylan's music forms the basis for a tenuous friendship between the two men until Dr. Antone falls in love with Mr. Dylan's wife. When the doctor's estranged wife journeys from California to Minnesota and requires emergency surgery, Dr. Antone provides her anesthetic and she dies. Medical evidence points to a fatal drug administration and Antone is accused of first-degree murder. The Doctor and Mr. Dylan examines the dark side of relationships between a doctor and his wife, a father and his son, and a man and his best friend. Set in a rural Northern Minnesota world reminiscent of the Coen brothers' Fargo, The Doctor and Mr. Dylan details scenes of family crises, operating room mishaps, and courtroom confrontation, and concludes in a final twist that will leave readers questioning what is of value in the world we live in.