"This is the very best kind of memory book, brimming with a 
richness not merely of scene and detail but of life. Bouncing 
between the past and present, Hilary Masters achieves sweep, 
focus, and a palpable depth as his hero tries to reconcile himself 
to the death of his fascinating yet impossible mother and the 
loss of what in retrospect he understands was a lush, if difficult, 
childhood. Marvelous."—Stewart O'Nan

Set in pre-9/11 Pittsburgh, Elegy for Sam Emerson 
commemorates a past that will abruptly end as the novel follows 
the fortunes of Sam Emerson, proprietor of an upscale Mount 
Washington restaurant with stunning views of the three rivers 
below. Middle-aged and nostalgic, Sam Emerson ruminates on 
his unconventional childhood as he faces the prospect of life 
without his much younger lover, and at the same time, deals 
with disposing of his mother's ashes and traveling to France to 
look for his father's unmarked grave.

"In Elegy for Sam Emerson Hilary Masters writes exquisitely 
about food, gardening, love, Pittsburgh, theatre, race. I love how 
deeply imagined his characters are and how fully he conveys the 
layered complexity of life in the second half of the twentieth 
century. A novel of passionate intelligence and profound humanity."
—Margot Livesey

"The world needs more books like this. I read the novel with a 
sense of wonder at its deep compassion and greatness of spirit. 
The images, scenes, and dialogue evoke two different worlds 
simultaneously and show how the past inhabits the present, 
always. This kind of writing is what writers call 'the real thing.'"
—Cynthia Shearer

_________________________________________________________

HILARY MASTERS is the author of eight other novels, two story 
collections, an essay collection, and the acclaimed memoir Last 
Stands. He's been a Fulbright lecturer and the recipient of an Award 
for Literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. His 
essays have been republished in Best American Essays, and his 
short fiction has been cited in Best American Short Stories and 
Pushcart. He is a professor of English and creative writing at 
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.