Abe Gilman’s Ending: A Novel

Recently widowed, confined to a wheelchair, and placed in an elderly-care facility, Abe Gilman wants no part in any of the activities of the other residents, preferring to live out his life in cynical near-isolation.But among those activities is a collective oral history project that two of the members, Samuel Hersh and Hannah Cohen, are attempting to turn into a book. The two of them fall in love while writing the intriguing story-within-a-story about the young man Elie Wasserman, whose father has disappeared during WWII. Is he alive or dead? Is he a hero or something very different? Hannah’s sudden death drives Hersh to end Elie’s story with the bitterness and depression he now feels. Gilman, a former teacher, has grown to respect the project, and rejoins life by offering an inspiring and effective ending, Abe Gilman’s ending.Author Glenn Frank has structured this fine novel uniquely, telling it in alternating narratives and justifying two complementary endings. This is a major tour de force by a writer who deserves fiction readers’ attention.