Spirit’s Tether

The narrator Jim, a gay academic in his sixties, lives through a year of intense mourning at his home in Bolton Hill, Baltimore. His godson Jacob, son of the college roommate Jim loved years before, comes to live with him as he starts an MFA program in composition at Peabody Conservatory. Chapter by chapter, Spirit's Tether traces the stages of grief, Jim's negotiation of friendships old and new, and his options for sex and love. Meanwhile Jacob faces the challenges of first love and coming out. Flashbacks at the end of each chapter recall the years since the start of Jim's great love. 


John C. McLucas is a free-lance author and Professor Emeritus of Italian and Latin at Towson University in Baltimore. Spirit's Tether is the sequel to the author's debut novel, Dialogues on the Beach. 


“… a wonderful book about the redemptive nature of profound grief and all the mystery of the new order it creates.” Jan Mitchell Sherrill 


“Spirit's Tether is a beautiful book… elegant language that echoes Vidal…” Louie Crowder