"The Baker of Lost Memories"

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of A Castle in Brooklyn. She is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Wachtel holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty-five years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. Her podcast, EXTRAordinary People, features inspiring individuals who have overcome obstacles to make a difference. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to three precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur.

Wachtel applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Baker of Lost Memories, and reported the following:

Here is an excerpt which begins on page 69 of The Baker of Lost Memories. Lena is considering her college major.

Deciding on her major proved to be trickier. Somewhere in her head floated the idea that she would become a lawyer. It wasn’t that she had any particular interest in law, but devoting her life to the pursuit of social justice seemed like a noble calling… Of course, her true passion, the thing she wanted to spend her days doing, was baking. Since the honey cake fiasco years earlier, Lena had continued to keep a watchful eye on her mother whenever she baked her rugelach for the Jewish New Year or the hamantaschen when Purim came around. Between those occasions, Lena would make versions of her own baked goods, even creating a few original recipes like a chocolate layer cake with strawberries or peanut butter nougats. Sometimes, if the finished product was good enough, she would share it with her friends and even her parents. If, however, the dish lacked the right amount of flavoring or was oversalted, before anyone could see it, she would secretly toss it into the garbage with the other failures. For their part, Anya and Josef largely ignored her efforts, deeming some of her creations “very good,” holding back their praise as they cautioned her to pursue a more solid, profitable career. And even though Lena wished that baking could possibly become a full-time career, and even though when she was a girl, she had coveted the idea of owning a bakery just as her parents had prior to the war, she knew the real reason they discouraged her. There were too many memories. Memories of another daughter who had been a baker, possibly the best baker in the world. As a result, for Lena, baking remained a hobby.

This excerpt offers a glimpse into what motivates Lena, the only child of Holocaust survivors, Anya and Josef. She is about to begin college and must consider a major. While she thinks of becoming a lawyer, in her heart she struggles with the need to pursue another occupation. Her parents and a sister she never knew were bakers in Lodz, Poland before the war. Ruby was a darling girl with a club foot, but perfect in every other way. According to her parents, she had become a master baker in their small shop. But when war intervenes and they lose their beautiful child, Anya and Josef begin a new life in America with their daughter, Lena. Yet the loss they endured is never far from their mind, and Lena senses this. Her efforts at baking are met with only modest approval as her attempts stir up memories of happier times with their beloved Ruby. Lena wants to prove that she too can be the perfect daughter so that she can earn her parents’ love.

This is indeed a pivotal scene as it reveals Lena’s feelings of inferiority, never being good enough, never being like Ruby. As the novel continues, she embarks on a new plan to gain their favor, as she marries and becomes a baker in her own right. But there is more to Lena than meets the eye, and her obsession with being the best has serious consequences. It is only when another unexpected tragedy occurs that Lena finds the resolution she has always yearned for.

Visit Shirley Wachtel's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Castle in Brooklyn.

My Book, The Movie: A Castle in Brooklyn.

Q&A with Shirley Russak Wachtel.

My Book, The Movie: The Baker of Lost Memories.

Writers Read: Shirley Russak Wachtel.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Sky Full of Love"

Lorna Lewis is gifted in turning characters’ dreams into drama and crafting stories rich with emotion while exploring the complexities of real-life situations such as marriage, infidelity, fertility struggles, betrayal, and the power of forgiveness. In addition to being an author, Lewis is also an educator. She believes in using her creativity to inspire and teach others both in the classroom and through her writing.

A native of Varnado, Louisiana, a small town much like the ones she loves bringing to life in her stories, Lewis’s southern roots influence the sense of community, culture, and warmth in her work. When she’s not writing her next novel, Lewis enjoys spending quality time with her husband and their two beautiful children, finding joy in family life, and drawing inspiration from her own experiences to enrich her writing.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Sky Full of Love, with the following results:

Page 69 brings readers inside an emotional moment between Nova and her mother. Nova has survived fifteen years in captivity, and now, for the first time in a long time, she’s safe, but her mind and body haven’t caught up to that reality. She lies in a hospital bed, watching her mother sleep nearby. Nova’s both comforted and unsettled by how surreal it all feels. When her mom wakes and calls her “Sweet Pea”, a nickname Nova once hated but now clings to, it’s a tender reminder of the girl she used to be. Beneath the surface, though, Nova is carrying the weight of deep trauma. She reflects on the torment she endured, particularly at night when Adam, her captor, had nothing but time to focus on her. Nova finds it hard to share even a small part of her story with her mom for fear of the hurt it may cause.

The Page 69 Test works for this book because it’s a snapshot of what the book is about. It isn’t just about Nova and what happened to her during those missing years. Most of the book is about her return and all the different emotions and situations she has to face now that she’s reunited with her family. This page captures her emotional struggle, the disconnect between safety and peace, and the tension of wanting to protect her family from the full weight of her truth. I believe this page reflects the heart of the story, which is recovery, complicated love, and the invisible scars that keep Nova's mind captive even though her body is free.

A Sky Full of Love is about Nova Lefleur’s journey to healing after being kidnapped and held hostage for fifteen years. This story explores what it looks like coming home to so many changes, not only in the world but also in your family. The story is told from Nova and her sister Leah’s points of view. Both women face some unimaginable challenges that neither ever dreamed they’d have to endure.

Visit Lorna Lewis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Doorman"

Chris Pavone is the author of The Paris Diversion, The Travelers, The Accident, and The Expats. His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards; are in development for film and television; and have been translated into two dozen languages. Pavone grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Cornell, and worked as a book editor for nearly two decades. He lives in New York City and on the North Fork of Long Island with his family.

Pavone applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Doorman, with the following results:

On page 69, doorman Chicky Diaz is asking his boss Olek if he can switch to the nightshift. Chicky’s wife recently died, and he hates sitting home alone at night, depressed; he’s hoping that the nightshift will give him more social interaction, something to keep him out of trouble, even if that interaction is primarily him holding the door for residents who aren’t always gracious about it.

Olek is the Bohemia’s live-in superintendent, a hyper-competent guy who has messy Cyrillic tattoos that evoke prison, but no one has the nerve to ask him about it. The Bohemia has a large staff, with a lot of shifts of a lot of jobs to cover, and a population of residents who are very demanding; Olek’s job is not an easy one.

Page 69 a great microcosm of the book. The Doorman is an Upstairs-Downstairs story that takes place largely at the world-famous Bohemia Apartments, where all the residents are in the 1 percent, and some are billionaires, people whose lives are filled with fine-art collections and fundraising galas, weekend houses and private schools, but also midlife crises and extramarital affairs and deep despair. Downstairs, all the working-class guys are Hispanic and Black, leading very different lives, facing very different problems—but also many of the same exact problems. The Doorman is about what happens at the intersection of these of lives, and page 69 is a great example of the downstairs world, and how it does and doesn’t interact with upstairs.

What’s more: Olek’s stick-and-pokes (“Ukrainian prison, Russian prison, who knew”) and Chicky’s nights at home (“all the trouble that a guy could find, especially a lonely single guy who didn’t have much to look forward to”) both help build the air of menace that thickens over the course of the narrative. It’s clear from the book’s opening sentence that someone is going to die in this story. The reader’s journey is to discover who, and when, and where, and how, and, most interestingly, why.

As for the novel as a whole, from The New York Times:

Pavone is the author of five previous books, literary thrillers characterized by elegant writing and intricate plotting. This is something bigger in tone and ambition. While a mystery hums beneath the narrative — who won’t make it out of the book alive? — “The Doorman” is better read as a state-of-the-city novel, a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York at a singularly strange moment...

With its laser-sharp satire, its delicious set pieces in both rich and poor neighborhoods — a co-op board meeting, a Harlem food pantry and more — and its portrait of a restive city torn apart by inequality, resentment and excess, “The Doorman” naturally invites comparison to “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” Tom Wolfe’s lacerating dissection of New York in the 1980s . . . But Pavone’s humor is more humane, his sympathy for the characters’ struggles and contradictions more acute. With his eye for absurdity and ear for nuance, he seems as if he’s writing not from some elevated place high above the city, but from within it.

I think this review did a great job of explaining the book.

Visit Chris Pavone's website.

See: Chris Pavone: five books that changed me.

Coffee with a Canine: Chris Pavone & Charlie Brown.

The Page 69 Test: The Expats.

The Page 69 Test: The Accident.

The Page 69 Test: The Travelers.

The Page 69 Test: The Paris Diversion.

The Page 69 Test: Two Nights in Lisbon.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Stalker"

Paula Bomer is the author of the new novel The Stalker, which received a starred Publishers Weekly review, calling it “dark and twisted fun”. She is also the author of Tante Eva and Nine Months, the story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and other Stories, and the essay collection, Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in Bomb Magazine, The Mississippi Review, Fiction Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Green Mountain Review, The Cut, Volume 1 Brooklyn, and elsewhere. Her novels have been translated in Germany, Argentina and Hungary. She grew up in South Bend, Indiana and has lived for over 30 years in Brooklyn.

Bomer applied the Page 69 Test to The Stalker and reported the following:

From page 69:

He walked toward the back of the loft, the bedroom and living room behind him, into the open kitchen area, which had a window that faced a cement courtyard, and a fire escape. The loft was a little over two thousand square feet. Besides the bathroom and the small bedroom, there were no enclosed spaces, and the loft retained that loft feeling. He was starting to understand the logic of this, of open space. He sat down at a small wooden table with four mismatched chairs— a thing? Eclectic? Sophia came from the front, a cup of coffee in her hand.

“You showered,” she said. “How was it?” Already searching for a compliment.

He grunted. “The cement floor is rough.”

He watched her face fall.

“I know, it’s all the rage now, cement bathrooms,” she said sheepishly. Good.

He grunted again. It was funny. His father had left him many gifts. He had the grunt, for one. A Hamilton watch.

“Do you want milk or sugar?” Now she was facing the kitchen, getting him a coffee. He could get used to this.

“Milk.”

Music was playing on a sleek black player, which in shape reminded him of his toolbox, although much smaller, a rectangular box with a radio and a CD component. A woman, singing. He flinched. “What is this music?”

“It’s Kate Bush.” She looked at him, again searchingly. He loved a hungover person. They were confused about the night before, so then they became confused about everything: the music they love, their bathroom floors. He didn’t say anything.

This page does accurately introduce the reader to some critical themes of the novel. Our protagonist, the man who is known as “Doughty”, is seen casing out the apartment of a woman he just met. He’s a stalker, and that includes being a “noticer" as an early reader of mine put it, which I love. He notices square footage, he notices unique things about the apartment like the concrete bathroom floor, all things he will use to his advantage. He notices things that he can and does then use as a way to manipulate his victim. This woman is his victim, because that is what all women are to him, and he will work hard to make that so. He plays on her vulnerability, using the things he notices, and most importantly, he notices her vulnerability. He’s a man who will find your vulnerability and use it to his advantage at all times.

Visit Paula Bomer's website.

Writers Read: Paula Bomer (October 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Circular Motion"

Alex Foster received his MFA from New York University, where he served as fiction editor of Washington Square Review. His short stories have appeared in Agni, The Common, The Evergreen Review, and elsewhere. Previously, he studied economics at the University of Chicago and conducted research for the U.S. government and for the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab in West Africa.

Foster applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Circular Motion, and reported the following:

On page 69, the narrator and an intimate colleague -- whom the narrator has, thus far in the novel, courted and then rebuffed -- come close to amending their relationship after a dramatic fight. (To find out whether they do in fact make amends, you'd need to turn to page 70.)

What strikes me most about reading page 69 is that without context, a reader would likely follow the interaction between the characters -- but be completely thrown off by the setting. The characters are said to casually cross paths "on the roof" of their office building, and lines of dialogue are punctuated by setting descriptions like, "a pod snapped into the sky." Why are they on the roof? What is a pod?

The disorientation you might feel by starting on page 69 is actually not unrepresentative of the novel, even when read properly. To be sure, if you started from page 1, you'd know what a "pod" is: In the book, characters commute to work using a high-speed airborne transportation system that drops them down in stations, on street corners, and, occasionally, on the roofs. But even to proper readers of the book, the setting is meant to be a little bit strange, a little foreign, a little dizzying. Products are used without being overly explained (character store their jackets in "coat compactors" and find dates on an app called "MateMe"). Circular Motion is about the alienation and confusion of life in a world where technology is rapidly advancing, where you feel old at 25, and small within global systems that you can never fully comprehend.

The book wouldn't be as effective if the reader understood everything about the world that the characters are in. The characters themselves don't understand the world they're in. Just as we can never fully grasp our own political/technological/economic environment. We learn to function -- to love and fight and make amends -- even surrounded by inexplicable strangeness.

Visit Alex Foster's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Ascent"

Allison Buccola is the author of The Ascent and Catch Her When She Falls.

She has a JD from the University of Chicago and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and their two young children.

Buccola applied the Page 69 Test to The Ascent with the following results:

Lee Burton grew up in a reclusive cult, and she woke one morning to discover everyone was gone, including her mother and sister. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. Now, twenty years later, she’s trying to build a normal life for herself when a woman shows up at her front door, promising answers. On page 69, Lee has just encountered this woman (I’ll be a little vague here to avoid spoilers), and they’re walking on the Schuylkill River Trail in Philadelphia with Lee’s daughter, Lucy.

We see Lee and the woman talking, and Lee is trying to wrap her mind around the woman’s sudden appearance. Memories of her past and feelings about her abandonment are surfacing, and she’s trying to push them back down. We also see Lee’s fears about what this encounter means for her present. Her husband doesn’t know about her early years in the cult, and she doesn’t want him to find out.

Reading this page would give the reader a very good sense of the story as a whole. Lee’s relationship with this woman drives the story: Does the woman actually hold the answers to Lee’s past? Can Lee trust her? Lee’s relationship with her husband is another major source of tension, and we see hints of that here. I’m not sure it comes through fully on this page, but another question pulsing under the surface is whether Lee should trust this woman around her daughter, and so I like that the woman and Lucy are in close proximity on this page. I would say the Page 69 Test works here—but because of minor spoilers on this page, I would not recommend using it!

Visit Allison Buccola's website.

Q&A with Allison Buccola.

The Page 69 Test: Catch Her When She Falls.

Writers Read: Allison Buccola.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sing to Me"

Jesse Browner is the author of the novels The Uncertain Hour and Everything Happens Today, among others, as well as of the memoir How Did I Get Here?

He is also the translator of works by Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, Rainer Maria Rilke, Matthieu Ricard and other French literary masters. He lives in New York City.

Browner applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Sing to Me, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Sing to Me, my young protagonist is wandering the streets of a deserted city that has recently been sacked and looted. He’s wearing a helmet he has found in the rubble when he stops to look at his reflection in the basin of a fountain. He reflects about the man who lost it. He marvels that his own brain now occupies the very space that was occupied by someone else’s brain only a few days previously, and wonders whether any of that man’s thoughts have left traces of themselves in the helmet.

This passage provides an excellent sense of what the book is about, many of its principal themes and a powerful insight into my protagonist’s psyche. The ravages of war, the vulnerability of children in times of conflict, the clear-eyed honesty of a child’s assessment of human cruelty and frailty, the enduring capacity for wonder – all are touched on in this brief passage. “How many helmets are out there right now, buzzing with the thoughts of dead people in their own language, while their families, maybe thousands of leagues away, believe or hope they are still alive?”

Because my protagonist is alone for much of the novel, we are necessarily inside his head for most of that time, so by this point the reader has become used to the meandering, digressive and irrepressibly curious rhythms of his thoughts. Those, too, are highlighted to good effect on this page. He is a young boy from an isolated farming community, so as he drifts through the post-apocalyptic devastation of the ruined city, everything he sees and every reaction to his experiences is new to him and forces him to try to make some sort of sense of the incomprehensible.

What he doesn’t know, and what the novel never explicitly spells out, is that he happens to be wandering through the aftermath of one of the most storied and consequential wars in the history of Western civilization. He has no sense of who was fighting whom, why they despised each other or the background of their dispute. As a child, all he knows is what he sees; the rage and violence of great warriors and feuding gods, the enmities between empires and the lure of pillaged treasure have no meaning for him. He sees right through them to the stark truth underlying the history of nations.

Writers Read: Jesse Browner (January 2012).

Writers Read: Jesse Browner.

Q&A with Jesse Browner.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Silversmith’s Puzzle"

Author Nev March is the first Indian-born writer to win Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America’s Award for Best First Crime Fiction. Her debut novel Murder in Old Bombay was an Edgar and Anthony finalist.

March’s books deal with issues of identity, race and moral boundaries. Her sequel, Peril at the Exposition is set at the 1893 World’s Fair, during a time of conflict that planted the seeds of today’s red-blue political divide. In Captain Jim and Lady Diana’s third adventure The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret they face a strange, otherworldly foe who causes Jim to question the nature of justice. In the newly released The Silversmith’s Puzzle, Captain Jim and Diana race back to colonial India to rescue Diana’s beloved brother Adi, who is accused of murder.

March applied the Page 69 Test to The Silversmith’s Puzzle and reported the following:

On page 69 we read the tail-end of chapter 10 (this is my shortest novel, at 322 pages). Although it’s only a quarter of a page, it reveals the rapport between Captain Jim and young Diana.

Hoisting myself from my chair I dropped a kiss on her still-flushed cheek, saying, “You’ve given me an idea.”

As I dragged on my boots and fetched my hat from the stand, she called, “Where are you going? Mama bought fresh drumsticks for our curry.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” I assured her, tapping on the broad-brimmed solar, a mainstay for gents in the tropics. “Going to chat with the darling man. He buys surgical supplies.”

“Oh!” She sat up, all eyes. “To get him to buy Adi’s scalpels?”

“No.” I grinned. “To find out whose profits are threatened by Adi’s business!”

Readers would likely pop open page 69 and then skim the previous page 68 to suss-out what’s going on. Here Diana’s grumbling about how she’s been cut by her social acquaintances, and refused membership by an officious librarian. While she’s griping, she lists the obstacles that her brother Adi (who’s accused of murder) has faced, which gives Captain Jim a possible new suspect!

So yes, taken together, this page and a quarter distill the essence of my story, the couple’s distinct challenges, and their endearing bond. ‘Darling Man’ is what Diana calls Doctor Jameson, because he had previously (in Murder in Old Bombay) helped her and Captain Jim get together. Although the Page 69 Test works, it does not hint at the darker themes of the novel, nor the action-adventure in the latter part of the novel.

I think that readers who’ve followed Captain Jim and Lady Diana through the first three books will enjoy seeing them match their wits against a seemingly intractable challenge. Readers who haven’t met them yet will likely want to go back to where it all started, with a Murder in Old Bombay.

Visit Nev March's website.

Q&A with Nev March.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Old Bombay.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Old Bombay.

Writers Read: Nev March.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Shot Through the Book"

Eva Gates, also known as Vicki Delany, is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Catskill Summer Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Delany is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

The latest Lighthouse Library mystery is Shot Through the Book, the twelfth title in the series.

Delany applied the Page 69 Test to Shot Through the Book and reported the following:

Sadly, page 69 of Shot Through the Book, the twelfth Lighthouse Library mystery, written by me under the pen name of Eva Gates and published by Crooked Lane Books, fails the Page 69 Test completely.

“No.” Watson said. “I am not going to do that. Lucy, please continue.”

Louise Jane fell back in her seat with a puff of air and a disapproving pout.

“Far from hoping to commune with his spirit,” I said, “she wanted to take photographs of herself at the site of the incident.” I went on to relate what happened in as much detail as I could without overdramatizing (enough of that, thank you, Louise Jane) including the presence of not only her personal assistant but a photographer.

“That is interesting,” Watson said when I finished. “She didn’t tell me about the visit, and I’ve no reason to believe, at this time, it’s directly connected to any motives behind Harrison’s death. But, I do have to wonder why she didn’t mention it to me. Judging by the timing, she would have come directly to the station after leaving your place. She did not have a photographer or anyone else with her, although she might have left them outside.”

“What line of work is she in that she has a PA following her around?" Ronald asked.

“You told me she was an unemployed journalist,” I said to Watson. “It’s possible she’s mentoring an unpaid intern. The woman was young enough to be a college student or an intern. She didn’t look at all comfortable in her job.”

“Why did you make a point of asking Louise Jane and me to be here now?” Ronald asked. “Be quiet, Louise Jane and let Lucy answer.” Louise Jane continued to pout, but she said nothing.

“Because Heather made an accusation to me about another person, and I believe she said the same to Detective Watson. Before this goes any further, I thought we should talk, in front

It is, truth be told, a pretty dull page. People are exchanging information, and although this information is important to the story, it doesn’t say enough to reveal anything about who the characters are (other than their names), the setting, or even the mood of the book. “Harrison’s death” is mentioned, so we can assume this is a murder case, but little else.

Four people are talking, and although they are all named, we don’t learn anything about any of them, or what their relationship is, or what role they play in the book. A small clue might be that the only character referred to by his surname, is in fact, the police detective, although that is not confirmed until the second last line on the page.

On this page the characters have gathered in an unnamed place, not a hint of setting, location, atmosphere is given. It isn’t even clear that this is intended to be a cozy mystery, and the characters have gathered in the library.

I hope despite this (admittedly) dull page, the reader will be interested enough to want to know what these people are talking about. Which is, why was a bestselling YA author shot by an arrow standing on the deck of Lucy McNeil’s beach house, one pleasant summer’s evening in the Outer Banks, while she was inside getting the lemonade.

Follow Eva Gates on Facebook, and visit Vicki Delany's website.

The Page 69 Test: Death By Beach Read.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Death Knells and Wedding Bells.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2023).

Writers Read: Eva Gates (May 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Stranger in the Library.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Michael Without Apology"

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than fifty published and forthcoming books.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Michael Without Apology, and reported the following:

As it turns out, page 69 of Michael is the end of a chapter, and a short page. Here’s the text:

He brought the letter to school with him, where he stood in front of his locker and tore it into pieces the size of confetti. He never opened it. He ripped it up still sealed, envelope and all.

Then he carried the pieces, clutched tightly in his fist, into the boys’ room, where he flushed them down the toilet.

They didn’t go down properly. They caused a clog, and the toilet overflowed.

And Michael thought, That figures.

It was like a sign to him that the envelope and its dreaded contents had been nothing but trouble. Like something that rises up from hell and still has a little of the evil in it.

He moved out of the stall quickly before any of the toilet water could get on his shoes, and left the whole mess behind him.

Here’s what I do like about this page 69 test: These actions are a pretty visual and visceral sign of an upset child, and I think it would tend to make the reader curious as to what was in that letter and who sent it to him. So it might be good in terms of making the reader want to read more.

Here’s what I don’t like about it: Most of the novel is set in the present, when Michael is 19, and following him into his early 20s. There are just a few chapters that go back to his childhood, to help the reader understand how he ended up scarred on so many different levels, including the literal scarring. But this just happened to be one of the latter. This page is about the wound, and the book is about the healing. It’s about unapologetically presenting yourself to the world as you are, dropping all the shame and judgment around body image and appearance. And that aspect feels much more important to me than how he ended up scarred in the first place.

So… on balance, I’m going to say that this page 69 does not test especially well, as my books go.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

The Page 69 Test: Rolling Toward Clear Skies.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Perturbation of O"

Joseph G. Peterson is the author of several works of fiction and poetry. He grew up in Wheeling, Illinois, received his B.A. from the University of Chicago, and his MA. from Roosevelt University. The Des Plaines River and the forest preserves surrounding it winds through the town of Wheeling, and through the imaginary territory of many of his books. He currently lives with his family in the Chicago neighborhood, Hyde Park, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

Peterson applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Perturbation of O, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test works for The Perturbation of O.

My latest book is a conversation between two people who are meeting each other for the first time in seventeen years. They encounter each other in a cafe by accident and Regina Blast introduces herself to Gideon Anderson who wrote a famous memoir called, Gideon's Confession. In the memoir, Gideon writes a couple of pages about Regina's art-work, because Regina is a painter, and he describes the brief sexual encounter that they shared. When the book becomes famous, partly because of a revealing episode Gideon had when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show, Regina becomes famous as that person in his book with whom Gideon had sex. She also becomes famous for her paintings when Oprah visits Regina's studio and in the encounter with Regina alters forever the trajectory of Regina's art career. The conversation between Gideon and Regina takes place in alternating chapters where each character in a pyrotechnic of speech responds to the other's speech. Page 69 of The Perturbation of O takes place at a new chapter break, and Gideon is responding to Regina trying to explain why he thinks both of their lives were changed forever by their encounter with Oprah Winfrey. He says to Regina, "Shall we call it, I asked Regina, The Perturbation of Oprah Winfrey? She is an irresistible force unto herself, and one falls into her orbit by accident or will to be changed forever by the encounter." Later, Gideon refines his concept by asking if this force of Oprah which is a benevolent force should quite simply be called, The Perturbation of O? He thus names the title of the memoir of his new encounter with Regina that he will go on to write in an act of betrayal to Regina who swore Gideon to secrecy making him pledge that what happens between them stays between them.

Visit Joseph G. Peterson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Beautiful Piece.

Writers Read: Joseph G. Peterson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Enemy's Daughter"

Melissa Poett majored in music composition, first telling stories with instruments before switching her medium to words. She now writes young adult novels in a variety of genres ranging from contemporary to romantasy. She lives in Canada, and The Enemy’s Daughter is her debut novel.

Poett applied the Page 69 Test to The Enemy’s Daughter and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Fesber—that’s the antidote and will help the kidneys. Use the leaves, too. They assist with circulation and oxygenating the blood. Let’s start with that: fesber tea made with the whole plant, even the root.”

Why aren’t they moving?

“Don’t you know what it is?” I ask. “Small purple flower with fuzzy leaves. It grows in the rocky, higher ground. You must have some of that around here. Get me some paper, I’ll draw it for you. And crushed white thistle! He’ll need that, too, to support the liver...” So many other plants come to mind, but there isn’t time.

Samuel shares a skeptical look with Ryland. They know what I know: it’s too late. These remedies could’ve helped Tristan if he didn’t have a lethal dose of poison in his body. Now, he’s too far gone.

Which is why I need them to go and search for this flower.

After I fail to take back the poison, I’m going to have to make my escape.

“Make it concentrated,” I continue, my voice turning desperate. “A handful of each plant and cover just enough with water and simmer. It will need to be given for days. Maybe weeks. He’ll have to drink buckets of it. But it will help.”

I straighten my shoulders, doing my best to look confident that this is still a viable option.

“Go,” Vador commands without taking his eyes off Tristan.

“You, too, Ryland. Help him. We don’t have much time.”

Samuel flexes his fists like he’s about to punch a hole in the wall. “Fine. But if he’s dead when I return, I’m the one who gets to kill her.”

I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised to find that page 69 of The Enemy's Daughter offers a fairly rounded picture of the story—at least the key parts.

The Enemy's Daughter is a reimagining of the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde and unfolds in three pivotal parts: the main characters are cast as enemies, a poisoning occurs, and a love potion ultimately binds them together.

Page 69 includes all three of those things. Here we see that Isadora, a young healer, is trapped in enemy territory and in grave danger. The stakes are high, not only for her, but for her people, who are dependant on her to escape her enemy captors. Tristan, an elite enemy soldier, has been poisoned, and Isadora must find a way to save his life or face death.

At the end of this passage, the reader is given a glimpse of what will eventually lead to a kind of love potion—a rare magic that will irrevocably bind them together. It sets them on a path toward a fateful choice: will they give into their growing attraction, putting aside a decades-long war . . . or will they betray the other to save their own people?

Visit Melissa Poett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Fire"

Andrew Erkkila is a former Gila Hotshot with four seasons of fire experience. He has fought fire in most of the western U.S. In 2011, he was honored with the S.W.E.A.T. Award (Superior Work Ethic and Teamwork).

He graduated from the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, The Master's Review, the New Orleans Review and was listed as a finalist in the 2019 Zoetrope All-Story Screenplay Contest judged by Francis Ford Coppola and as a finalist in the Missouri Review’s 2019 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. His work has also been featured on the Great New American Essays podcast and optioned for television.

Erkkila is adjunct faculty at the The College of New Jersey and Rutgers-Newark Writing Program.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, American Fire, and reported the following:

From page 69:

When I ran away at seventeen, I knew one thing—the only real death is avoiding life. So I did what everyone that age does. I went to New York to be an artist, but mostly I did regrettable things, and went broke.

I’m fine now. But I also know crazy never leaves. It lives inside. My New York uncle is proof. He took me in when I moved there. He taught me carpentry. And discipline. He could fix anything. Except his own mind. He started hearing voices until he no longer knew what was real. My brother was no different. Sometimes I worry I’m like that too.

I walk out onto my porch with a bottle of whiskey. Sparrows dart from twig to twig.

My mother says the same things. Life is with people, and if I live nowhere, I don’t exist. She begs me to think of one good memory from childhood. One family dinner? I can. But it doesn’t matter. It’s hard to live without family. But it’s even harder to tell my mother she’s brainwashed. Because that’s the thing about brainwashed people. They don’t know.

The night spins on briskly. Drunk as this, it’s like I’m submerged. I only hear noises. Distortion. Maybe it’s my unspeakably high tolerance for pain. I used to love this job. But now every day I ask myself what the hell I’m doing, taking shit from twenty-year-olds. I’m an underpaid babysitter. Death, old age, going nuts, blind, ending up alone, I can’t keep track of the daily list of fears. Now I have Bronson’s cloudy lungs to worry about. I might as well quit. Or get fired.

I empty the bottle. I shout to the trees, the wind, the valley. I cry. My voice is the only voice in the night.

I trudge back to bed, but don’t sleep. I fall through the dreamless hole that every drunk knows, and cross to the other side.

The Page 69 Test works remarkably well in capturing the emotional core of American Fire. The book can be categorized as an adventure story—a genre that privileges action over interiority. In this passage, however, Tanya, the main character, who is also an alcoholic, exists in her drunkest and most vulnerable moment. In the safe space of her off-the-grid cabin, she comes to grips with some troubling behavioral patterns that stem from her upbringing in an extremely religious household. Tanya is defined by her freedom, but longs for friendship—two concepts often at odds. True friendship requires sacrifice and selflessness; freedom, a bit more nebulous, can be defined as the unhindered ability to unapologetically be.

Much of the book is about fighting fire, working on an elite team in New Mexico. But what drives a person towards a career in fire? In this section, we clearly see what keeps her up at night. Who she wants to be. Even now, she still believes she can only define herself in opposition to her parents. This is an important stage for anyone, when someone reaches a turning point. She sees the pathway to becoming the person she wants to be, but will she take it? Will she discover that by doing so she will find the freedom that comes with it?

Visit Andrew Erkkila's website.

--Marshal Zeringue