{"product_id":"tortoise-crossing-expect-long-delays-book-mike-murphy-9781545297070","title":"Tortoise Crossing--expect long delays","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake changed-and ended-many Bay Area lives. There were heroes, there were villains, and there were many people shaken (at first, literally) to the core. A huge event like that can throw lives together in startling ways, and that's the subject of my novel, Aftershock.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI wrote the story because I lived in San Francisco at the time of the quake, and had quake-related experiences with people who became models for certain aspects of the main characters. Of course, San Francisco itself is a rich setting for fiction-the disaster circumstances called out to be made into a coherent novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe earthquake and its damages are a frame for the emotional damage of the three primary characters. One is a blithe joker who is insecure in his art, one a respected businesswoman who feels lost to her father, and one a military veteran whose alcoholism lost him to his family and himself. Those all sound like downers, but the interplay between these characters-characters who never would have come together in these ways without the quake-is often hilarious. Except when it's not. There's a lot of San Francisco in the book, including the city's beauties, and how the AIDS crisis affects a secondary character and thus the protagonist. Even the Bronte sisters get their moments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50389828632849,"sku":"CIN154529707XG","price":4.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/154529707X.jpg?v=1750718464","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/tortoise-crossing-expect-long-delays-book-mike-murphy-9781545297070","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}