Independent Publishers Group Logo

Sign up today...
for featured titles, special offers, bestsellers, and more, in your inbox!

Subscribe to receive special offers, monthly books suggestions, seasonal selections, and more!

Close
The Astronaut's Son
The Astronaut's Son

The Astronaut's Son

FICTION

224 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper

Trade Paper, $18.95 (CA $24.95) (US $18.95)

Publication Date: April 2021

ISBN 9781949116403

Rights: WOR

Woodhall Press (Apr 2021)

Price: $18.95
 
 

Overview

On the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing comes a novel in which a Jewish astronaut must reassess his moral compass when forced to confront NASA's early collaboration with Nazis and the role it may have played in his father's death. Jonathan Stein, the CEO of Apollo Aeronautics, is an ambitious polymath who has spent a lifetime determined to accomplish two tasks: First, to complete his father's unfulfilled mission to reach the moon, and second, to forge a relationship with the reclusive Neil Armstrong. Despite a heart condition, he's on the verge of his first goal, but has gotten nowhere with the second. Armstrong has never responded to any of Jonathan's dozens of letters. Avi Stein was an Israeli pilot specially chosen to command Apollo 18 in 1974, but suffered a fatal heart attack before launch. Now, months from being able to realize his father's dream, Jonathan discovers a "lunar hoax" conspiracy website offering a disturbing reason for Armstrong's silence: He knows Jonathan's father didn't die of natural causes. While researching his father's last days in the National Archives, Jonathan expects to confirm the official cause of death, but what he uncovers instead is a motive for murder. To get to the truth, Jonathan must confront Dale Lunden, his father's best friend and the last man on the moon.

Reviews

"Seigel's solid debut provides an intriguing and plausible variant on moon landing conspir- acy theories…Equally strong on plotting and characterization, Seigel does better than many other thriller writers in making his lead's pain and uncertainty about the past palpable." —Publisher's Weekly "The Astronaut's Son is a fast-paced thriller that is as deeply informed as it is spellbinding. It probes the fascinating ways in which the future of space travel—and the legacy of World War Two—may be hostage to a dark, conspiratorial past. It is a tale of fathers and sons in which a memorable hero struggles with the ironies and deceits of history, as well as with haunting, and personal, moral complexities. Readers who love the foreign intrigue novels of Philip Kerr and Alan Furst will rejoice in Tom Seigel's ambitious first novel." —Jay Neugeboren, author of Max Baer and the Star of David, Imagining Robert, and 1940 "The Astronaut's Son is a suspense novel with heart: smart; funny; poignant; surprising; and, in the end, deeply satisfying. Jonathan Stein is a complex hero, a man on a lunar—and some- times lunatic—mission. Stein embarks on an extraordinary quest, driven by love, grief, anger, paranoia, and just a touch of pure chutzpah. What a pleasure it is to accompany him on his journey. Climb aboard and prepare for lift-off in this joyride of a novel." —Hollis Seamon, author of Somebody Up There Hates You and Corporeality

Author Biography

Tom Seigel has served as both Deputy Chief and Chief of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn, prosecuting members and associates of La Costa Nostra. After twenty years as a litigator, Tom earned an MFA in fiction writing. His new novel, Caught on Film, is a wild ride that follows an aging young actor trying to star as Holden Caulfield before it's too late. See more at tomseigel.com.

If you are interested in distribution with IPG, please view our information for prospective publishers.

More