The Man in the Bed by Mary Howard

The Man in the Bed by Mary Howard

From the author of 'Discovering the Body', comes the impassioned drama of a ballet dancer's artistic obsession with her body and a revelation of the ways that harrowing details of four generations of her family created her myth of certain stardom and challenge her to accept new joy and purpose after a devastating loss. Burning with a temperature one summer night, six-year-old Nikki Mendel is carried to the back yard pond by Grandpa Henry, dead since the end of winter. As cold water breaks her fever, he terrifies her with near drowning. She is left with proof he came back to save her: his pipe tobacco smell, the rasp of his whiskered cheek, a peppermint he left in her hand. Fifteen years later, Nikki returns home on the eve of change. Her brother Jonas, now thirty, has never moved out. Gabe, a New York actor, shows up the next day. Their mother has summoned them to hear her plan to urge Jonas out on his own by selling the house, a surprise strategy that propels the family's long-suppressed grief into an act of irreversible loss. In the aftermath of tragedy, Nikki throws herself into her dance career, only to suffer a devastating injury. A lifelong dancer, she feels destroyed by the loss of her perfect dancer's body. Parallel to Nikki's story is the story of Grandpa Henry's double identity, details hidden from her that led to his guarantee she'd be a ballet star - and may have handed down to her through the generations the way she chooses to deal with loss. Their stories intertwine but never touch until she makes a discovery that convinces her she can form a new identity without dance to define her. The novel asks whether meaning survives when the body fails, whether myth can coexist with truth, and whether faith - in love, in art, or in ghosts - is a form of courage or avoidance. The Man in the Bed is about inheritance: what we carry, what we lose, and what we choose to live with once old certainties are gone.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781683152194
ISBN 10	1683152190
Title	The Man in the Bed
Author	Mary Howard
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Culicidae Press, LLC
Year published	2026-06-15
Number of pages	238
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.