{"product_id":"9780965570268","title":"Passage of the Kissing People","description":"PASSAGE OF THE KISSING PEOPLE is a lyric tale of old loves, old hates, and a stolen silver brooch, set on the grounds of the Sonoma State Home for the Feeble Minded. A fifty-year-old artist's past leads to a romantic mystery in his present, cued by family language and memory.\u003cbr\u003eIn 1953, Michael Kohler, 7, is desperate to save his family. Sickness, storms and the political warfare raging at the State Home where his parents work, have pushed him too far. He steals the Kissing People, the good luck brooch cherished by the warm Italian family of his childhood love, Gisella. Then his father lays a devastating charge of suicide about Gisella's brother Joe, an inmate on leave from the Home. Emotional backlash forces the Kohlers to flee Sonoma. Michael's desperate last- minute attempt to return the brooch fails, and it is lost in darkness.\u003cbr\u003eThe death of Gisella's brother causes young Michael to call his father a liar. A phrase from that moment, \"Are you scared to learn the goddamned truth?\" echoes between them for the next forty years, the nuclear weapon in their family language. At first a challenge to authority, it becomes a demand for justice, then a plea for love, and finally, an offer of reconciliation.\u003cbr\u003eBy 1996 Michael is a divorced dad of a teenage daughter; his father is almost eighty, with a failing heart. Michael is challenged by an anonymous email. He must return to Sonoma for the first time in forty years. He must face Gisella, and the survivors of the family from whom he stole the silver brooch. To gain forgiveness for his dying father and himself, he must find the long-lost Kissing People.","brand":"Seventy Fourth Street Productions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47034152648944,"sku":"9780965570268","price":14.97,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780965570268_p0.jpg?v=1763876056","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780965570268","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}