Cities of Men: A Novel
In 1987, twelve-year-old Cooper Balsam's mother, Arden, disappears without a trace. Cooper's father, Percy, a Vietnam veteran struggling with PTSD, doesn't seem too concerned. "This isn't the first time. She's done it before." As days pass, Cooper begins to act out and withdraw from the world, and his growing animosity toward his father's ambivalence begins to escalate even as Percy and Cooper begin to actively search for the woman in their lives. From the hills of Southern California, to the deserts of Arizona, and down to the beaches of Mexico, the father and son will look for someone who may not want to be found for reasons they don't yet understand.
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Book details
- Author
- William Jensen
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Fiction › Coming of Age
Fiction › Literary - Topics
- coming of age · father and son · missing persons · Vietnam veteran · PTSD · 1980s · road trip · Southern California
- ISBN-13
- 9781683366669 (Paperback)9781683366676 (Hardcover)
About the author
WILLIAM JENSEN is the editor of Southwestern American Literature and Texas Books in Review, and the author of Cities of Men.
Jensen has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Texas State University, where he studied under Robert Stone and Tim O'Brien, and his short fiction has appeared in The Texas Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Tinge Magazine, and Mystery Tribune.
When he’s not writing, Jensen teaches English and southwestern studies at Texas State University, drawing on his roots in southern California and central Arizona. Much of his fiction engages with the landscapes and cultures of the American Southwest.
William lives in Austin, Texas.