Books published by Bacon Press Books

Wise, funny, and deeply felt, Waiting for Next Week is a love story, a story about growing up, a story of confronting death.Three years ago when her mother was diagnosed as having cancer, Beth Asher started mentally preparing for her mother’s death. She and her younger brother, Billy, dutifully traveled home on weekends only to be subjected to their mother’s criticisms and their father’s complaints—until it became hard for them to believe she was really going to die. But suddenly the end is imminent.Beth and Billy are the imperfect children; their older siblings are the ones their parents always favored, the ones who cannot now be bothered with their parents’ demands. Both Sharon, the hectoring perfectionist older sister, and Grim, the golden boy and ideal eldest son are married with children, while Beth and Billy have spent the years dodging relationships that offer a chance of happiness. Beth has been living alone since she walked out on Michael, a man she loved but whose love she felt unsure of. As she takes care of her mother, she longs for someone to take care of her; as she comes to accept her mother’s impending death, she must also learn to accept herself.When the Asher family comes together for the first time in years, the old ways and the old wounds pick up where they left off—despite marriages, divorces, and changes in fortune. Some understandings will be reached, others thwarted, before Beth and Billy finally find the possibility of happiness for themselves.Michele Orwin unravels the intricacies of these intimate relationships with deft humor and profound compassion, creating an often hilarious yet deeply resonant family portrait.

Sigga of Reykjavik is the story of a spirited young woman who flees the abusive conditions on an Icelandic farm, only to face grinding poverty in Depression-era Reykjavik. Her struggle for independence runs parallel to Iceland's quest for freedom from Danish dominance. Born a century before the Me-Too movement, Sigga supports her family, working among men who learn never to touch Sigga without her permission.An adventurous spirit, Sigga is thrilled when World War II brings Iceland out of centuries of isolation. Thousands of Allied forces occupy the country, bringing money and work. But moral dilemmas abound as Sigga seeks to financially exploit the occupation while at the same time protecting her young and beautiful red-headed daughter from soldiers.

After Cookie Wagner stabs her abusive husband, she flees to remote Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For a moment, she seems to have gotten away with murder. But, consigned to a secretive life with a new name and the need to be on constant alert, she faces all she has not gotten away with. She's helped and feared by her new neighbors and dares to hope for a second chance. Even as the coastal winds of this wild place force the trees to grow on an angle, she too begins to grow.Yet, there is no leaving behind the notion that Warren is dead as the result of her action. But is he? And if not, will he one day come to find her?"A tension-filled yet ultimately humane story about hard-won second chances. Warm and wise, Maureen Brady's Getaway takes the reader on a suspenseful and memorable journey to the tenderest corners of the human heart." --Aaron Hamburger, author of The View from Stalin's Head and Faith for Beginners