by Michael Hainey (Get the Book)When Hainey was 6, his father, a 35-year-old copydesk editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, died of an apparent heart attack on the street on his way home from work. Hainey's uncle, also a newspaperman, came to the family home to deliver the news to his brother's wife and two sons. While his father lived on in scrapbooks, his mother cobbled together a life for them, and Hainey grew into his father's profession, becoming a reporter with a relentless sense that something was missing from the story of his father's death. As he approached the age at which his father died, Hainey began an investigation, talking to family members and his father's friends and colleagues. Hainey slowly pieces together his father's last years and the secrets of his life, breaking through a code of silence that respected a dead man's legacy but understood the reporter's search for the truth. What would the truth mean for his family, for his mother and her curt explanations and gauzy memory? This is a beautifully written exploration of family bonds and the secrets that may test them. --Booklist
