Still the World

Isaac Walker, a retired engineer in his seventies and widower, receives a call one June morning: his sixteen-year-old grandson Benjamin has been expelled from his private boy's school after being involved in an incident of hazing and sexual assault.

Charged with taking care of Benjamin while his parents are in Europe, Isaac finds himself unable to support the depressed and withdrawn teen. Desperate, Isaac consults his friend and occasional love interest, Veena, a children's author struggling with her own issues.

Veena's advice to Isaac is to give his grandson something to do, and the pair set to work building a deck together. The shared project seems transformative, as does the boy forming a positive relationship with Veena's goddaughter. But after a violent altercation with the hazing's lead perpetrator, it turns out Benjamin will need something more to help pull him out of himself.

Meanwhile, Isabel, the woman house-sitting next door, mourns the death of her fiancé, who was killed in a cycling accident, and nearby resident Arlene tries to manage her twelve-year-old son's terrible nightmares caused by the white ghost bike that has been placed in memoriam at the scene.

Through a cast of complex, expertly drawn characters, Cary Fagan highlights the timeless necessity of understanding, forgiveness, and love. A quiet yet deeply moving portrait of a man and his troubled grandson, Still the World is an exquisitely written narrative by one of our most celebrated storytellers