Michael is John and Margaret's eldest son. He's a precocious kid, smart and funny, obsessed with books and music. His sister Celia is the sensible one in the family: tougher than the boys, unshakeably certain about how the world works. And then there's Alec, the youngest, the most ambitious and also the most sensitive. He grows up in the shadow of Michael's distant coolness and Celia's pragmatic confidence, never quite keeping up with the others. The children are still living at home when their brilliant, beloved father walks into the woods by their house and take his own life. Years later, one of them will follow him. How are we damaged by what we inherit? How much can any family give to save one of its own? And how can you tell the difference between what is passed on and what is picked up between the truly inherited flaw and the self-fulfilling prophecy?
At the heart of Union Atlantic lies a test of wills between a retired history teacher, Charlotte Graves--who has suddenly begun to hear her two dogs speaking to her in the voices of Cotton Mather and Malcolm X--and an ambitious young banker, Doug Fanning, who is building an ostentatious mansion on what was once Charlotte's family land. Drawn into the conflict is Nate Fuller, a troubled high-school student who stirs powerful emotions in both of them. What emerges is a riveting story of financial power, the defense of tradition, and the distortions of desire these forces create. With remarkable scope and precision, Union Atlantic delivers a striking vision of the violent, anxious world we've come to inhabit.
