The Poet of Tolstoy Park

This debut novel is based on the life of Henry Stuart, a retired professor who learns in 1925 that his tuberculosis leaves him only a year to live. A widower, Stuart relocates from Idaho to the progressive town of Fairhope, Alabama, where he is gradually rejuvenated by his reflections, his labor at building his circular domed house, and his growing contact with the community. Rick Bragg reads Brewer's novel in a flat, unemotional manner, which, surprisingly, is effective. The book's sage observations and sometimes colorful prose risk sentimentality, but the simplicity of Bragg's reading offsets the occasional self-consciousness of the writing. (The author himself reads the epigraph and acknowledgements.) G.H. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

February 14, 2005
A dying man's decision to move from Idaho to Alabama becomes a quixotic spiritual journey in Brewer's ruminative, idiosyncratic first novel, based on a true story. In 1925, widowed Henry Stuart learns that he has tuberculosis and will probably be dead within a year. Stuart's initial reaction is optimistic resignation, as he regards his illness as a final philosophical journey of reconciliation, one that sends him back through the writings of his beloved Tolstoy and other literary and spiritual figures to find solace and comfort. Despite the protests of his two sons and his best friend, he decides to move to the progressive town of Fairhope, Ala. There, he begins to build a round, domed cottage where he seeks to "learn in solitude how to save myself" and earns himself the sobriquet "the poet of Tolstoy Park." The plot, such as it is, runs out of steam when Brewer makes an ill-advised decision to jump forward in time in the last chapters, but the heady blend of literary and philosophical references and some fine character writing make this a noteworthy debut. Agent, Amy Rennert. (Mar.)

Forecast:
Book world support for Brewer—who owns Over the Transom Bookshop in Fairhope, Ala., and is the editor of the annual anthology of Southern writing,
Stories from the Blue Moon Café—will be strong, as evidenced by blurbs from Pat Conroy, Robert Morgan, Rick Bragg and Winston Groom. Six-city author tour.