Later Days

In an evocative follow-up to hisLos Angeles-TimesbestsellingArroyo, Chip Jacobs returns with a gripping tale of brotherhood, recklessness, and last-ditch redemption against the backdrop of a Southern California prep school in gender upheaval. As the elite, all-boys institution transitions to coed, transforming the place from suburbanLord of the Fliesto soap-operatic play, two unlikely friends-Luke Burnett and Denny Drummond-alternate rescuing the other from self-destruction and home lives gutted by loss and distracted parents. Eager to maximize their era as God-like Seniors at Stone Canyon Prep, the pair and their classmates act invincible. They commandeer Bob's Big Boy and wander the secret world beneathCaltech, meeting a charismatic Nobel Prize physicist in the process. They sweat destiny-making S.A.T.s, grapple with fallout when two boys fall for the same girl, and watch in horror as a playoff basketball game is upended by the chemistry lab. Just when our heroes barely graduate, en route to prized universities, their bond is severed by a wild gunshot that will haunt them for decades. Twenty years later, Luke is a hard-charging journalist with an imploding career, while Denny is a visionary software engineer on the verge of a breakthrough-until a terminal diagnosis rewrites any happy ending. Their reunion forces both to confront the worst of themselves, a luminous female classmate who predicted her own death, and exactly how they squandered the potential Stone Canyon draped around them. As Denny's time runs short, Luke races to make peace with his failures in a world shorn of the magic his teachers once heralded. In a final act of reckoning, with the famous Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the mix, fate offers them one last chance to heal the other by confronting mortality and pleading for goodbyes slippery before. Later Daysis a powerful exploration of the ties that bind and break us. Perfect for readers drawn to fierce, flawed friendships, the currency of forgiveness, and the raw beauty of life skimming its edge. With rich insight into the secret histories of the late-seventies Pasadena area, and the psychological baggage of growing up in the shadows of "Great Men," father, Jacobs second novel is as emotionally resonant as it is intellectually sharp.