{"id":95541,"date":"2026-07-28T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=95541"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:02:23","slug":"book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Feature:<\/strong> Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Fage, Author<\/p>\n

\"\"A dedicated journal keeper throughout her lifetime, Laura Fage\u2019s grandmother left behind accounts of her life that fascinated Fage, especially stories about her own father. \u201cWithout them, my sister and I would never have known who our father really was, not even his birth name and our real<\/em> family name,\u201d Fage says. \u201cHe 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 \u2018Man of the Year.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cAs I pieced together his life through my grandmother\u2019s journals, I began to understand the hardships he endured as a child and the choices that shaped the man he became,\u201d she says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t excuse every decision he made, but it replaced judgment with compassion.\u201d Writing a debut novel inspired by current events and based on discoveries made about her father was an emotional experience for her. \u201cI think that\u2019s 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,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dedicated journal keeper throughout her lifetime, Laura Fage\u2019s grandmother left behind accounts of her life that fascinated Fage, especially stories about her own father. \u201cWithout them, my sister and I would never have known who our father really was, not even his birth name and our real family name,\u201d Fage says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":95559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nBook Feature: Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets - The Laurel of Asheville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A dedicated journal keeper throughout her lifetime, Laura Fage\u2019s grandmother left behind accounts of her life that fascinated Fage, especially stories about her own father. \u201cWithout them, my sister and I would never have known who our father really was, not even his birth name and our real family name,\u201d Fage says.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Feature: Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets - The Laurel of Asheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A dedicated journal keeper throughout her lifetime, Laura Fage\u2019s grandmother left behind accounts of her life that fascinated Fage, especially stories about her own father. \u201cWithout them, my sister and I would never have known who our father really was, not even his birth name and our real family name,\u201d Fage says.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Laurel of Asheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thelaurelofasheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T10:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Book-Feature-Man-Front-Mockup-1-copy-2-e1784836899236.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"596\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amy Pryor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AshevilleLaurel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AshevilleLaurel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amy Pryor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amy Pryor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13d76582350fe4093b37d2b69174af00\"},\"headline\":\"Book Feature: Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T10:00:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":326,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Book-Feature-Man-Front-Mockup-1-copy-2-e1784836899236.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts\",\"Literature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-man-of-the-year-a-flood-of-family-secrets\\\/\",\"name\":\"Book Feature: Man of the Year: A Flood of Family Secrets - 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