Tracks: A Novel in Stories
by Eric D. Goodman
Fiction, Trade Paperback Original
ISBN 978-0-9845105-7-3
6 x 9 in / 316 pages
Publication Date: June 30, 2011
This novel-in-stories follows a diverse group of passengers on a train from Baltimore to Chicago, revealing the secrets of their past, their hopes for the future and just how intertwined their lives really are.
Journey by train from Baltimore to Chicago via the perspectives of a diverse array of passengers. They are the strangers we meet every day: a soldier slowly losing his faith in the war, a businesswoman learning to balance her job and the family she loves, a computer geek-turned-criminal, a Holocaust survivor finding hope in facing her fears, couples in love, a woman dealing with the death of her parents, a poet hunting for inspiration, and a hit man with a job to finish before the train arrives at its destination. Watch as these and other characters’ lives and stories seamlessly link and intersect, quietly shaping and changing one another.
From nefarious goings-on in a Fells Point row house to prestigious partying on Federal Hill, Goodman’s Baltimore is immediately recognizable and real. The stories in Tracks stand alone, but they become stronger when linked together. A secondary character in one story becomes the main character in the next.
Tracks examines the decisions each character faces and how those decisions, as well as their interactions with the other passengers, alter the path ahead and cast past experiences and choices in a new light.
Praise for Tracks
“[Goodman] has brought together a fascinating cast of characters…The scenes in these stories expand to include all kinds of human fears and sorrows, regrets and grateful joys.”
–JMWW
“In an age of high-speed internet, Facebook lives and thoughts that only last 140 characters, it’s refreshing to see a book with such unhurried attention to character.”
–The Nervous Breakdown
“In Tracks, Goodman manages to capture the complicated push and pull of family, of friends, of history, of life—how it bears down on each of us, pulling us apart while simultaneously pushing us together…a wonderful debut.”
– Mary Beth Keane, author of The Walking People
“The author has a knack for easily and quickly evoking a sense of place…a compelling novel.”
–ForeWord Reviews
“A fascinating and recommended read.”
–Midwest Book Review
“Goodman is a keen, compassionate and refreshingly un-ironic observer of the human condition.”
-Bathsheba Monk, author of Nude Walker and Now You See It …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric D. Goodman has been writing fiction since he was in the third grade, when a story assignment turned him on to the craft more than a quarter century ago. He regularly reads his fiction on Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR, and at book festivals and literary events. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Baltimore Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Writers Weekly, The Potomac, Grub Street, Scribble Magazine, The Arabesques Review, and New Lines from the Old Line State: An Anthology of Maryland Writers. Eric is the author of Flightless Goose, a storybook for children. Tracks is his first novel.