October 2022
Mortal Things: A Novel
by Ned Bachus
“He smiled. He had experienced brief moments when he and a woman had clicked on the same wavelength, when nonverbal communication spoke volumes more than words, but it had never happened instantaneously. He did not worry about this connection lasting. It just existed, like the color blue.”
—from Chapter 5
Mortal Things: A Novel
by Ned Bachus
ISBN: 978-1-7349563-8-2
What mortal things are fleeting, and what things stay with us forever?
Mount Airy, Philadelphia, 1989. Sarah Goins, a college professor with a thriving career and close-knit academic community, is eager to draw her boyfriend Mike Flannagan deeper into her world. But Mike, a groundskeeper at a local seminary, resists, instead keeping her at arm’s length as he struggles to come to terms with a past haunted by loss.
Late one night, Mike crosses paths with Domenic Gallo, a neighborhood barber who has been injured in a mugging. As Mike helps the elderly man, Domenic tends to his own painful history, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship built around mutual understanding of each other's grief.
When outside forces drive Sarah and Mike further apart, Sarah seeks out Domenic in an attempt to salvage her floundering relationship. Like Mike, she is drawn into the world of Domenic's barbershop and the new sense of community it offers.
A series of crises and secrets threatens the fragile balance Sarah, Mike, and Domenic have created, and soon the trio find themselves grappling with the meaning of family and class, loyalty and faith. Told in alternating perspectives against the vibrant backdrop of one of Philadelphia's most distinctive neighborhoods, Mortal Things is a powerful reflection on the transient ties that can bind or break us.
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Advance Praise for Mortal Things
“Ned Bachus’s compulsively readable novel Mortal Things is a gorgeously written portrait of human friendship and all its longing and connection and loss. Set in a diverse Philadelphia neighborhood, the city is rendered so vividly you’ll feel you live there. Bachus’s writing displays such great depth and intelligence and sensitivity—all of which makes this novel wonderfully immersive. The book is profoundly moving and entertaining, with wry humor and knowing insights on display on every resonant page.”
—Susan Conley, author of Landslide, a New York Times Editor’s Choice
“With an acute sense of place and insightful characterization, Ned Bachus captures the long-lasting ripple effects of chance meetings, unspoken truths, and the losses haunting our lives. Class divides of late 1980s Philadelphia, our much-needed connection in an atomized society, and how our sorrows can drive us to the unexpected are all masterfully explored. An atmospheric and powerful debut novel with deep emotional impact.”
—Marjan Kamali, author of the Boston Globe bestseller The Stationery Shop and the Massachusetts Book Award finalist Together Tea
About the Author
Ned Bachus’s collection of short stories, City of Brotherly Love, was awarded the 2013 Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) Gold Medal for Literary Fiction. About the book, Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, said “[My] life is variously enriched by reading Ned Bachus’s superb stories.” The recipient of two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, his 2017 book, Open Admissions: What Teaching at Community College Taught Me About Learning, was the product of his nearly four-decade career at Community College of Philadelphia, where he won multiple teaching awards. Ned holds a BA from Temple University, an MA from Gallaudet University, and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Born in Quebec and raised in Philadelphia, he lives in Camden, Maine.
