When a man realizes everything he’s built isn’t enough, he must decide what—and who—still matters.

Baker Vaughan had everything—until a shattering loss and the weight of unexpressed grief brought his carefully constructed world to a halt. Stranded at the crossroads of identity and expectation, he must confront the ghosts of his past, from the hallowed halls of an Ivy League university to the quiet friction of small-town secrets.

Baker Vaughan: A Novel is a deeply moving contemporary family saga about the courage it takes to strip away the armor of success. As corporate drama collides with psychological healing, Baker is forced to choose between running from his pain or embarking on a vulnerable, second-chance journey toward wholeness.

For readers drawn to rich, slow-burn literary fiction and late-stage coming-of-age narratives, this award-winning novel stands among the finest men starting over contemporary fiction of recent years.

Novels that share these deeply moving themes of redemption and starting over include:

• “Crossing to Safety” by Wallace Stegner: The quintessential American novel about lifelong friendship, moral reckoning, and navigating the quiet, sometimes devastating turns of life, choices, and resilience.
• “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson: A beautifully contemplative novel featuring an aging Iowa pastor looking back on his life, faith, family history, and the profound grace found in late-stage reconciliation.
• “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce: Similar to Baker’s journey to Boise, this follows a retired, unmoored man who walks across England in an attempt to heal from a deep, long-held grief and seek redemption.
• “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles: Centers on a man who loses his previous life of privilege, strips away his former identity, and undergoes a deep psychological and moral reckoning while discovering new, grounded meaning in life.
• “Tinkers” by Paul Harding: A Pulitzer Prize-winning, meditative novel about an aging man in his final days, hallucinating and reflecting on his past, family histories, and his relationship with his father.