Lone Stars: A Novel

Julian wakes in the middle of the night to the cry of his newborn son, Pablo, and moves wearily into the baby’s room. As he comforts and soothes the boy, he reflects on the life that brought him to this moment. Thus begins Justin Deabler’s gorgeous debut novel, Lone Stars.

As a young man in Houston, Julian’s life is neither easy nor joyful. He is close to his mother, a stifled academic who teaches high school because her dreams of being a college professor weren’t in line with what the men in her field expected of her. But, she pours all of her love and attention into educating her brilliant son. Their relationship saves her from the pain of an unhappy marriage and the disappointment of a professional life she settled for rather than chose.

And Julian knows he is all she has, a weight that burdens him as much as it makes him proud. At Harvard, where he falls in love and learns to forgive himself, he also comes to terms with two huge secrets that have festered in his family tree.

At its heart, Lone Stars is a generation-spanning meditation on hope: what it makes us believe in and all the ways it breaks our hearts. It is a beautiful and well-paced book worth savoring.