Laura Fage, Author
A dedicated journal keeper throughout her lifetime, Laura Fage’s grandmother left behind accounts of her life that fascinated Fage, especially stories about her own father. “Without them, my sister and I would never have known who our father really was, not even his birth name and our real family name,” Fage says. “He spent much of his life shedding identities, leaving pieces of himself behind and carefully burying the truth. At various points, he was running from the law, from failed relationships, from the consequences of his own choices and, perhaps most of all, from the man he used to be. Yet while his past was marked by deception and reinvention, his later years were defined by extraordinary acts of generosity that earned him the title of ‘Man of the Year.’”
When Helene hit, Fage was reminded of the story of his heroism during the Great Ohio River Flood of 1937, and wanted to write a novel. “As I pieced together his life through my grandmother’s journals, I began to understand the hardships he endured as a child and the choices that shaped the man he became,” she says. “It didn’t excuse every decision he made, but it replaced judgment with compassion.” Writing a debut novel inspired by current events and based on discoveries made about her father was an emotional experience for her. “I think that’s because, beneath the mystery and family secrets, the book is really about forgiveness, redemption and the realization that every life is far more complicated than it appears from the outside,” she says.
Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets, September 2026, fiction, by Laura Fage, and published by The Times Publishers, New York, NY. The book will be available in e-book, paperback and hardback formats and may be found at online distributors and through regional bookstores. Learn more at TheTimesPublishers.com.
