This week, Other Press editor Corinna Barsan talks about her favorite pick for fall, The Common Bond (978-1-59051-306-4). The novel by Donigan Merritt is about a “man’s attempt to surmount grief and guilt, recover his past, and claim a future” after the death of his wife. An excerpt from The Common Bond is available for one week.

I’m excited by a number of books this fall, Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home and Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine, but I have a soft spot for Donigan Merritt’s The Common Bond. It’s the second of Don’s novels that we’re publishing. The previous title, Possessed by Shadows, came out in 2005. I hadn’t read Don’s work before coming to Other Press so when The Common Bond landed on my desk I was in for a treat. By chapter four I was already living with the protagonist in Hawaii and completely invested in the characters and their stories. There was no question that it was a book I wanted to edit and an author I wanted to work with.

Donigan Merritt is a man of the world and a man who has worn many hats, which is certainly reflected in his writing. He was raised in the southern town of Magnolia, Arkansas but he didn’t stay put for long when wanderlust took him to Hawaii, Iowa, Bratislava, Slovakia, and Berlin, Germany, among other locales. Since leaving his hometown, Don worked such diverse jobs as airport cargo loader to paratrooper in the Army to philosophy professor. Lucky for us, he’s also a writer. The Common Bond draws on some of Don’s own experiences when he lived in Hawaii working as a deckhand on a sport fishing boat and then as a captain after he received his Coast Guard Captain’s license. You can read a little about his days living in Kona on Don’s blog and also keep up with his latest news at http://doniganmerritt.typepad.com

In this excerpt of Chapter Two, Morgan Cary has just arrived back home in Hawaii after being away for roughly a decade. His wife has recently died, and he is returning to the ghosts of his past within the lush backdrop of the island and inside the walls of the Sunset Lanai motel.