Synopses & Reviews
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Celebrants comes the much-anticipated sequel to the Thurber Prize-Winning novel The Guncle, in which Patrick O'Hara is called back to his guncle duties... this time for a big family wedding in Italy.
Patrick O'Hara is back.
It's been five years since his summer as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant's caretaker after their mother's passing. The kids are back in Connecticut with their dad, and Patrick has relocated to New York to remain close by, and relaunch his dormant acting career. After the run of his second successful sit-com comes to a close, Patrick feels on top of the world... professionally. Some things have had to take a back seat. Looking down both barrels at fifty, Patrick is single again after breaking things off with Emory. But at least he has a family to lean on. Until that family needs to again lean on him.
When his brother Greg announces he's getting remarried in Italy, Maisie and Grant are not thrilled. Patrick feels drawn to take Maisie and Grant back under his wing. As they travel through Europe on their way to the wedding, Patrick tries his best to help them understand love, much as he once helped them comprehend grief. But when they arrive in Italy, Patrick is overextended managing a groom with cold feet, his sister Clara who seems to be flirting with guests left and right, a growing rivalry with the kids' alluring soon to be launt (lesbian aunt), and two anxious kids trying desperately to adjust to a new normal all culminating in a disastrous rehearsal dinner.
Can Patrick save the day? Will teaching the kids about love help him repair his own love life? Can this change of scenery help Patrick come to terms with finally growing up?
Gracing the page with his signature blend of humor and heart, Steven Rowley delivers the long-awaited sequel to a beloved story, all about the complicated bonds of family, love, and what it takes to rediscover yourself, even at the ripe age of fifty.
Review
"The wise-cracking and wisdom-dropping protagonist of The Guncle returns for more adventures in Rowley's diverting sequel....The author's fans will gobble this up." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Steven Rowley's 2022 hit, The Guncle, charmed readers with its heartwarming story and hilarious cast of characters. The sequel promises more of that, with an overseas twist." Queerty
Review
"Few authors possess the infectious mix of light- and heavy-heartedness that makes every Steven Rowley novel an experience." Electric Lit
About the Author
Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book; The Editor, an NPR Best Book of the Year; The Guncle, winner of the twenty-second Thurber Prize for American Humor and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for Novel of the Year; and The Celebrants, a Today Show Read with Jenna book club pick. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages. He resides in Palm Springs, California.