Beach Town: Stories — David Daniel

Shift whistles at the soap factory and the shipyard, along with the changing tides, mark the rhythms of life in the beach town. This is a world of fast food, double dates, and Saturday morning haircuts at the barber shop-a world as seemingly uncomplicated as a summer night's ride on a carousel. A lonely girl from "away" seeks connection with high school classmates who give no notice; a harried salesman confronts his deepest fear; a middle-aged woman reckons with unfulfilled dreams; and a man returns for a class reunion and finds himself face to face with something beyond his imagining. In Beach Town, David Daniel recreates the seaside town of North Weybridge, recalling in stories poignant and sometimes mysterious, the loves and losses, the magic and hard realities of clam diggers, sailors, barmaids and disillusioned lovers, characters revealed in moments of crisis or enlightenment.