Return to Shepherd Avenue — Charlie Carillo

Acclaimed author Charlie Carillo revisits Shepherd Avenue, the novel that sparked his career, in a witty, moving story about growing older and (sometimes) growing up . . .

For the second time in a few weeks, Joey Ambrosio has done something reckless. The first incident -- climbing to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge to scatter his father's remains -- earned him newspaper headlines and court-ordered therapy. This time, he's doing something arguably even more dangerous: buying his grandparents' old house in the rough Brooklyn neighborhood where he spent an idyllic summer half a century ago.

With boarded up stores and bars on every window, Shepherd Avenue sure isn't the way it used to be. Then again, neither is Joey. In 1961, he was a newly motherless kid trying to find his way. Now a successful children's book author estranged from his grown daughter, he's viewed with suspicion by his new neighbors -- and with amusement by the beautiful Puerto Rican laundress across the street. Amongst the colorful misfits of his past and present he's hoping to heal old wounds, forge new bonds, and figure out what exactly brought him back here . . . and how, at last, to move on.