Tingston

When Christian "Chris" Clark was a boy, he thought youth - along with the small town of Tingston in which he was growing up - would last forever. Tingston was nothing short of idyllic to Chris, seemingly frozen in a mid-20th-century suburban innocence. His big brother Dan was a legend, the star high school quarterback and prince of the town. Dan's girlfriend - Vickie - was the beautiful head cheerleader, who could do marathon back handsprings across almost the whole gridiron. Their parents were dedicated to making their lives comfortable, safe, and ideal. Chris's best friends were a constant presence in his life, helping to ease the transition from being awkward middle-schoolers to coming of age as Tingston High students. Their worlds revolved around high school football games, hanging out at the local drive-in theater (camping out at the snack huts and listening to the movies echo across the window boxes before having cars of their own), and long nights in the booths of town's carhop diner - Crommel's - feeding themselves as well as the jukebox. In addition to it all was Chris's passion for drawing. He spent countless hours parked at Dan's desk in their shared bedroom, looking out the window at the horizon of their town, trying to create a flawless sunset sketch. In Tingston, every sunset was perfect, even if Chris's attempts to capture them fell short.

But innocence can only hold out for so long.

When the dawn of the 1970s brings its seismic shifts to America, the certainty and comfort of Chris's world begins to fracture. The days should be celebratory, as the friends trade bikes for cars, navigate first loves, and anticipate prom and graduation as upperclassmen of the Tingston High halls. However, life can get complicated, even in a small town like Tingston. Chris finds himself struggling to reconcile the life he expected to continue forever with a world of shifting values and insurmountable loss. Chris learns how easy it is to make the wrong decisions, especially as the town finds itself pulled more and more into the harsh reality of a radically changing country. Eventually, bonds are broken, and loyalties are irrevocably betrayed. Before long, Chris is ultimately faced with the choice of staying by his family's side in what's left of the town he knew, or leaving everything behind for an uncertain adulthood somewhere far beyond Tingston's borders.

In his debut novel, TINGSTON, Robb James transforms the story of one small town's town reluctant evolution and loss of innocence into a sweeping tribute to family, friendship, first love, and the years we carry with us long after they have passed. The author masterfully guides the reader from the lighthearted, romantically golden afternoons of youth to the darker, indefinite days of adulthood, and the sobering realization that life very often plays out differently than we could ever imagine. Ultimately, though, TINGSTON is nostalgic and hopeful - paying tribute to the small towns we always remember, and the faces we never forget.