Praise for Joseph Coulson's debut novel, The Vanishing Moon:

"The novel at times achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell's finest work-generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental."-The Nation

"Coulson writes with surpassing clarity and dignity . . . creating a somberly beautiful family saga."-Booklist

"The Vanishing Moon is a beautifully told story about family bonds, love, loss, and the power of memory over our lives. This is Joseph Coulson's first novel, and I hope not his last."-The Bloomsbury Review

Of Song and Water tells a tale of the Great Lakes, of singlehanded sailors and jazz musicians, of working-class dreams blighted by family duty, personal betrayals, and the untold violence between fathers and sons.

The story moves from the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the jazz bars of Detroit and Chicago, from 1920s Rivertown to present-day Humbug Marina, as it follows the life of Coleman Moore, a jazz guitarist who began his career with promise but who now finds himself adrift and in the company of ghosts: his mentor, a black jazz legend trying to live peacefully on the edge of a white town; his grandfather, a Prohibition rumrunner turned ruthless entrepreneur; and his first love, a clear-headed woman who refuses to live in the dark tunnels of the past.

In language that evokes the riffs and rhythms of jazz and the sound and movement of the Great Lakes, Joseph Coulson's second novel is a profound Orphic journey, a story of hidden truths, unfulfilled dreams, and possible redemption.

Joseph Coulson, novelist, poet, and playwright, was born in Detroit in 1957. His first novel, The Vanishing Moon (2004) was selected for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers series and won the Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, from ForeWord Magazine.

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