Brooklynite’s poignant novel depicts teen coping with loss
Brooklyn BookBeat
Brooklyn-based author Avra Wing earned critical acclaim with her first novel, “Angie, I Says,” which was made into the movie “Angie” starring Geena Davis and James Gandolfini. In her second novel, “After Isaac”, published this past June by Olinville Press, she again wins the hearts of her readers. “After Isaac” tells the story of Brooklynite Aaron Saturn, an emotionally stunted 16-year-old who is stifled by his grief over the death of his younger brother, Isaac.
Wing captures Aaron’s heartbreak with an astute delicacy. “As many times as I go over it, it’ll never make any sense,” Aaron recalls toward the beginning of the book, reflecting on the day his brother passed away. “What did we talk about on the train going home? Why can’t I remember? I think we went into Video Forum…Isaac had pretty good taste in movies for a kid. He was just getting into Hitchcock.”
Aaron goes on to replay the day’s events, agonizing over each detail, and finally, wondering, “Had he cried out? Did I sleep through it?” Isaac’s heart had stopped in the middle of the night. “Could I have done something to save him? Everybody told me it must have happened very fast and quietly, no way I would have heard something, no chance to help. Still, there were times I couldn’t stop thinking about it, telling myself it was my fault,” Aaron mourns.