Gardnerโs relentlessly honest and moving portrayal of a broken marriage, and his ambitious unfinished masterpieceโa metafictional mystery centering around one manโs struggle to recover his lost identityโtogether in one accomplished volumeStillness:Martin and Joan Orrickโdistant cousins who have known each other since early childhoodโare in the final throes of a failing marriage. Martin is a compulsive drinker who obsesses about his writing, and Joan is struggling with a debilitating physical condition. Together they search for some type of collective identity, and identify where the dissolution of their love began.ย Inspired by therapy sessions Gardner experienced with his first wife, Stillness is an insightful portrait of one coupleโs struggle for fulfillment in a tumultuous world.ย Private detective Gerald Craine is pursuing an unknown murderer. At the same time, he himself is the target of an unknown personโs pursuit. Stumbling through an alcohol-soaked haze, Craine desperately seeks meaning and understanding in a world fraught with fragmented narratives.ย Shadows:John Gardnerโs friend Nicholas Delbanco has supplemented this unfinished novel with seven sections from Gardnerโs original manuscript that provide critical insight into Gardnerโs approach to developing the novel and its characters, giving a rare glimpse inside the creative process of one of the twentieth centuryโs most inventive writers.ย This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.