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New Meridian Arts is a creative community dedicated to publishing innovative literature and poetry that gives voice to original writers of talent and scope around the world.
Mrs. Alworth
In 1923, nineteen-year-old Amanda Bannon will marry, then pass away. Her death surprises no one. Her marriage shocks everyone. Reserved, sharp, and consumed by medical school aspirations, Amanda learns a chronic illness has left her with less than one year to live. Faced with the news, she makes a startling request: to marry Orest Alworth, a young man she barely knows who serves under her father’s command on the Newark police force.
As Amanda confronts mortality, she uncovers her husband’s painful history and the secrets reaching through the decades to lock Orest in a guilty grip—one she might help release. If she succeeds, she has the chance to give greater meaning to her short life by changing his forever.
“Mrs. Alworth envelops the reader, like a blanket. Tim Castano does an amazing job of pulling the reader inside the characters’ heads, and navigating their layers, from their appearances to their inner, vulnerable selves, to how they receive and perceive one another, and ultimately, to how they love. The central relationship is so pure, with no expectation, no promise, no compromise. What a beautiful—but oh so sad—story. Very much like Castano’s Quebec, it is an unforgettable read.”
— Nadege Nicoll, author of the Living with Grown-Ups series
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"Beautifully written and—perhaps fittingly—over too soon."
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"Mrs. Alworth by Tim Castano is a nuanced, humane, and all-too-human exploration of life’s great mysteries: hope, death, and the love that lives on after we’re gone."
About the Author
Tim Castano has worked in domestic and international policy. He holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a master’s degree in public policy from Rutgers University, as well as undergraduate degrees from Villanova University.
