Attachments: A Novel

A 2021Kirkus Reviews'Best Indie Book of the Year "[A] really clever plot....and Arch works it like a maestro. Fine writing, memorable characters, depth of feeling, and gripping drama-a real keeper." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED At a boarding school in Pennsylvania, a deathbed request from the school's dean brings three former students back to campus, where secrets and betrayals from the past are brought out into the open-secrets that could have a catastrophic effect on the dean's eighteen-year-old son. Told in alternating points of view and time frames, Attachments is the story of best friends Stewart ("Goody") Goodman, Sandy ("Pick") Piccolo, and Laura Appleby, the girl they both love. The friends meet in 1972 at a boarding school in coal-country Pennsylvania where they encounter Henry Griffin, the school dean, whose genuine fatherly interest and deep human bond with them is so strong that when he has a severe stroke almost twenty years later, he uses what could be his last words ever to call out their names. Attachments is a puzzle-and the only one who knows how all the pieces fit is in a coma. In the process, longtime secrets are unearthed, revelations come out into the open, and Young Chip Griffin is about to learn something he may or may not be able to handle.

About the Author :
Jeff Arch grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he spent two of his high school years at a boarding school much like the one depicted in Attachments. In the ’70s, he studied film/tv/theater production at Emerson College in Boston and then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a concert lighting designer and toured the country with national rock and reggae acts while teaching himself to write screenplays on the side. Years later, married and with a young family, he was teaching high school English and running a martial arts school when heard the call to write again; in 1989, he sold the school he’d built, rented a small office, and gave himself one year to write three screenplays. The second of those—a quirky romantic comedy where the two lovers don’t even meet until the very last page—sold almost immediately, and Sleepless in Seattle became a surprise megahit worldwide. For his screenplay, Jeff was nominated for an Oscar, as well as for Writers Guild and BAFTA awards, among others. His other credits include the Disney adventure film Iron Will, New Line’s romantic comedySealed With a Kiss, and the independent comedy Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys. His script for SavingMilly, based on Mort Kondracke’s searing memoir, earned the 2005 Humanitas Nomination, an honor Jeff treasures. Jeff is a father, stepfather, father-in-law, and grandfather. Attachments is Jeff’s first novel. He resides in Cape Cod.

Review :
A 2021 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Book of the Year "[A] really clever plot....and Arch works it like a maestro. Fine writing, memorable characters, depth of feeling, and gripping drama--a real keeper." --Kirkus Reviews, STARRED "Part mystery, part love story, and wholly human, Attachments examines a number of themes which will resonate in the lives of parents, lovers, and friends . . . both the unbreakable and the irreparable bonds--the attachments--between us all." --NERD DAILY "Prior to reading this wonderful book, I had only known Jeff Arch's body of work as a screenwriter, most famously for his Oscar-nominated Sleepless in Seattle. Now, with Attachments, Jeff brings his deep humanity, his unique and unmistakable voice, and his cinematic economy of style to this powerful story of love and betrayal and the possibility of forgiveness. With meticulous plotting and masterful language, he brings life and light to characters as real as they are unforgettable." --DAVID P. KIRKPATRICK, former production chief of Walt Disney Studios and president of Paramount Pictures "Any book that makes you laugh and cry and think--even question your own life--is a book worth reading, sharing, talking about, and, yes, wishing you had written it yourself because it's just that good. Jeff Arch's glorious, gorgeous novel creates characters and moments that make us believe in love even if we've given up on it. I wish I had written it!" --AMY FERRIS, author of Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis "A deeply felt, intensely human story about love, loss, friendship, grief, and renewal, with people you'll feel you've known all your life." --GIGI LEVANGIE, New York Times best-selling author of The Starter Wife and Been There, Married That "I love it when I know from the fi rst page I'm in the hands of a master storyteller. From the opening moment, Jeff Arch's well-plotted novel crackles with sharp dialogue, fully drawn characters, and a rich sense of time and place. I devoured Attachments." --RICHARD C. MORAIS, New York Times best-sellng author of The Hundred-Foot Journey and Buddhaland Brooklyn "There are plenty of novels about childhood friends and lovers, brought together in adulthood, only to learn explosive secrets about the others and themselves. But Attachments transcends them all . . . Letting each character tell his or her own tale, Arch has created people, not mere plot holders, and you'll follow them eagerly as they move through love, loss, acceptance and forgiveness. There's a deep humanity and compassion running throughout the story--you'll care about his characters, flawed though they are, really care. I loved Attachments." --JANE HELLER, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author "Simply put, Jeff Arch is an excellent writer with a wry eye and attentive ear to the rub, hurt, and humor in human interaction. And Attachments is a reminder, in the best sense of that word, to all of his talents." --NOAH BENSHEA, international best-selling author of 29 books including the famed Jacob the Baker series "Jeff Arch's literary skills aren't limited to screenwriting, as his first novel vividly demonstrates. The story of a romantic triangle at a Pennsylvania boarding school in the 1970s and the reverberations of those youthful relationships in its characters' adult lives, it's a fast-paced tale rich with sympathetic characters, cinematic scenes, and pitch perfect dialogue. Attachments is a revealing, heartfelt novel that should unite readers of literary and popular fiction in their admiration of its author's considerable talents." --HARVEY FREEDENBERG, Independent Reviewer "Attachments is a wise, emotionally astute, and deeply affecting novel about the bonds of love, loyalty and friendship that define us and test us throughout life. Jeff Arch's writing makes me want to slow down and linger. There is something for everyone in this story. I loved it." --CAROL MASON, best-selling author of After You Left "This is not the conventional wisdom, but Jeff Arch is Exhibit A for the argument that screenwriters make excellent novelists. A venerable teacher has a stroke and calls out the names of students from long ago, and they need to see him, and of course there's a complicated story with secrets that are about to be excavated. In other hands, Attachment grows up to be a Lifetime movie. But Jeff Arch wrote Sleepless in Seattle, and his novel is so much better than that--I didn't read it, I saw it." --JESSE KORNBLUTH, novelist and editor