The Middle of the Night — Daniel Stolar

A commanding performance of profound emotional resonance, The Middle of the Night examines the crucial moments in people's struggles to understand the strange paths their lives have taken: a seventy-year-old retired doctor tries to teach his sixteen-year-old son how to drive; a happily married young lawyer attends a high school reunion with the woman he was never bold enough to love; a white freshman pledges a black fraternity. Each of these rich, expansive stories is endowed with an insistent but plain-spoken intelligence, illuminating the drama and mystery at the heart of ordinary life.