The Fifth Season: A Novel - Tapa dura

Sixty-year-old Teddy Neel must overcome past problems with his father in order to be the supportive son his father needs as he faces a painful battle with cancer that is destined to end his life.

Downss first novel in ten years tells the story of one mans attempt to reconcile the dimensions of his life in the face of his parents decline. Sixty-year-old Teddy Neel, an able professor, is son to Able and Lillian Neel, who are living and dying in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The rift between father and son has been wide at times. Now Able, a captain of industry in his prime, is losing a kidney to cancer, while Lillian, who is largely blind, is in the midstages of Alzheimers, a matter cloaked by her husbands protective ruses. As Teddy visits them, their lives and true charactersand his ownare revealed in the stark minutiae of the every day. In on-rushing and meticulous present tense, Downs lets us witness the love and beauty, the pain and frustration, of the day-to-day needs in The Fifth Season .