Dear Everybody

Tracing the nuances of a short-lived life, this involving and sympathetically written novel maintains a tone of finely judged tension between laughter and tears. Jonathon Bender had something to tell the world, but the world wouldn't listen. However, he left behind him unsent letters addressed to relatives, friends, neighbors, coaches, teachers, classmates, professors, roommates, psychiatrists, employers, his younger self, former girlfriends, his ex-wife, a TV station, and God, among many others. This unsent correspondence forms the narrative of a remarkable life.

Michael Kimball is the author of "How Much of Us There Was "and "The Way the Family Got Away." He lives in Baltimore.