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More copies of this ISBNRadiant Daysby Michael A. FitzGerald
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:During the last days of the Balkan War in the summer of 1995, Anthony, a hapless American questioning the dot-com values that allow him to live a pampered existence in San Francisco, agrees to join Gisela, a beauty he barely knows, in a search for her son, lost in a Hungarian orphanage. In Budapest they meet Marsh, a brilliant but frustrated British war correspondent. Anthony thinks he has found in Eastern Europe what his former life was missing: enterprising young people openly questioning U.S. values, determined to remake their own world. But when an odd and edgy love triangle emerges and he discovers his mission with Gisela is much darker than he imagined, Anthony is thrown further in flux. Moving from the tattered romanticism of Budapest, through the sparkling Dalmatian coast, and into the brutalized landscape of inland Croatia, the novel takes a shocking turn of irreversible consequence.
Radiant Days is held taut in the voice of Anthony, whose desire to experience a more serious (and thrilling) life leaves injury in its wake. With a swift plot and seamless style, Michael FitzGerald delivers a story of unattainable love, misplaced lust, and the politics of compassion. Review:"FitzGerald's quiet debut centers on Anthony, a Gen X-er slacking away at a meaningless but remunerative Web producer job in dot-comboom San Francisco. Anthony's life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Hungarian bartender Gisela at a local watering hole. Beautifully irresistible (and entirely untrustworthy) in the manner of all foreign femme fatales, Gisela quickly persuades him to travel with her to Hungary, supposedly so that she can be reunited with her missing son. In Budapest, the two meet jaded British war correspondent Marsh, a Graham Greenelike character who becomes the third leg in a rapidly evolving love triangle. Anthony spends his time just as purposelessly in Hungary as he did in California, though there are more lengthy sociopolitical and philosophical discussions to be had. Were it not for his glimmers of self-awareness, Anthony might be just another unbearable ugly American. The machinations of love between the bewitching Gisela, the dunderheaded Anthony and the fatigued and fatiguing Marsh aren't fully explored, though the novel's consideration of the Balkan conflicts may be compelling to some readers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:"Artfully rendering violence and its aftermath, Michael FitzGerald explores the tensions and desires among three people whose flaws beckon us to judge not them but ourselves. Through his visceral depiction of human setting, he discovers unforgettable truths about war, love, and the elusiveness of redemption." Elise Blackwell, author of Hunger
Review:"FitzGerald flawlessly and astutely mirrors the ennui and confusion of a generation..." Booklist
Review:"...an old story, made fresh... with painful precision...." New York Times Sunday Book Review
Review:"In many ways, Anthony's character symbolizes the face of America... a thoughtful if uncomfortable depiction of the spiritual bankruptcy of Americans. A gripping narrative that calls for self-examination, this is recommended for all collections." Library Journal
Review:"....a trenchant, unnerving portrait of a certain kind of American at a certain point in history." Lifetime.com
Review:"FitzGerald has crafted a gripping tale — one that speeds up as it goes along....unmistakable literary talent." Missoula Independent
Review:"FitzGerald can write, and he refuses to avert his eyes." San Francisco Chronicle
Review:"...a dark and powerful debut." Seattle PI
Review:"...captures the universal ennui of Generation X in a world saturated by war. Fitzgerald skillfully shows how it transforms landscapes of earth, flesh and spirit." Thrive
Review:"....a brilliant job of capturing the aimless moral hunger of this generation.... moments of beautifully lucid writing." Downtown Express
Review:"Anthony is guaranteed to get under a reader's skin, and his characterization seems an entirely accurate contemporary addition to the long literary tradition of American innocents abroad." NewWest.Net
Review:"...there are only so many pages of masturbation and drug-induced riffs one can take.." Washington Post
Review:"Radiant Days is the darkly funny and deeply unsettling story of a young man who falls down a Central European rabbit hole. It made me squirm, and I loved it." Vestal McIntyre, author of You Are Not The One
Review:"Radiant Days is a fever dream of a novel and a scathing portrait of American self-absorption, alternately rabid and indolent, and ultimately devastating." Anthony Doerr, author of The Shell Collector and About Grace
About the AuthorMichael A. FitzGerald lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two young sons. He has been the recipient of a Fishtrap Fellowship, an Idaho Commission on the Arts Literature Fellowship, and an ICA Quickfunds grant. His shorter works can be found in Swink, Massachusetts Review, CutBank, Northwest Review, Other Voices, and Boise Weekly. He presently works as a software engineer.
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