James Rodgers

Long Night's End James Rodgers

A New York story of love, betrayal, tragedy and one man's struggle for atonement - Johnny Gunn stands atop a bar in downtown New York playing his guitar like there is no tomorrow. Below him the kids scream and stomp, wanting more from the over-the-hill rock band comprised of Johnny and his three childhood friends. As Johnny points his guitar out into the crowd and plays the music at a fever pitch, nobody in the crowd knows that his thoughts are not on the music, but on a tragic loss three years earlier and an uncontrollable anger at his God for the pain wrought upon the Gunn family. Johnny lives where he grew up?across the river in Sunnyside, Queens?along with his wife Rose and their teenage daughter Ellie. As Johnny fights off his own demons, his friend Jimmy is hurtling toward a dark void created on that sunny day when Jimmy's brother and father, both firefighters, went down with the towers. As Johnny tries to save his friend he embarks on his own path of self-destruction, a path fueled by his dependence on alcohol, the rejection of his faith, and the powerful temptation of the voluptuous Molly Farrell. At the same time Rose, urged on by the local priest, seeks to bring another child into the world, a child Johnny is not prepared to love. Johnny's journey takes him through tragedy, despair and sin. Ultimately he seeks redemption, but to do that he will need to love again and learn to embrace life. *** "One brilliant aspect of Rodgers' storytelling...is how he shows how God's plan can unfold in the lives of those who don't believe in him... The overall unpredictability of Rodgers' fictional world also lends it a sense of beauty and gritty realism." - Kirkus Reviews ***