Twice named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books, Kirk Ward Robinson is back with The Latter Half of Inglorious Years, his first novel since the acclaimed The Appalachian.

An untimely death and a mysterious manuscript propel an under-motivated 37-year-old blogger beyond his personal and creative boundaries in a journey that threatens to expose literary secrets as bleak as they are beautiful.

Joplin Dean doesn’t ask much of life. He subsists on income from a mediocre blog while his assertive girlfriend pursues goals that might just leave him behind. His placid existence is upended when a family tragedy reunites him with his estranged younger sister, whose carefree dynamism forces him to question his own sense of self. When Joplin discovers a manuscript left behind by his father, a failed author, both he and his sister are thrust into existential crises. Following divergent paths, they navigate the very nature of creativity and obsession as they are led inexorably toward the identity of their father’s mysterious literary ingenue, Clarissa.

Exactly who is she? And do they really want to know?