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A son searches for his father, only to grow uncomfortable-and even miserable-with what he exhumes. Where, he asks, are the limits of forgiveness? Is failure a badge of honor? Are we free to share the secrets of the dead? In Return of the Lost Son, a vivid, tightly paced memoir, Christopher Gonzales attempts to understand a man who, due to early-onset Alzheimer's, was unable to share his own memories.

At the outset of his exploration, Gonzales hopes to discover a benevolent father figure, someone he could imagine guiding him through the difficult terrain of life. Instead, he is met with shadowy fragments of his father's habits-drinking, womanizing, and aloofness-as well as a hidden marriage, which all force Gonzales to acknowledge that he might never uncover the angel he hoped to find. Constructed with clear-eyed prose and abounding with colorful travel stories, wending inner journeys, and psychological intricacies, Return of the Lost Son emerges from a committed project of asking and listening, recovering memory and community, and ultimately, healing.