Small Town Sins

March 1, 2023

In a declining Pennsylvania coal and steel town, the actions of three people reveal their broken pasts and possibly threaten their lives. Volunteer fireman Nathan steals money he's found in a burning building, nurse Callie risks illegality when she grants a dying young patient her final wish, and Andy, who's recovering from heroin addiction, sets out to challenge a serial predator. From playwright Jaworowski, a staff editor at the New York Times; a debut novel with a 125,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from May 8, 2023
New York Times editor Jaworowski shines in his artful debut, which interweaves the stories of several struggling residents in the Rust Belt town of Locksburg, Pa. When Nathan was 17, he impregnated the first girl he slept with and had to come up with the $1,000 she needed to get an abortion. He resorted to pawning his disabled mother’s wedding ring, but when its disappearance was noted, the search for it ended tragically. Decades later, Nathan is a volunteer firefighter whose marriage is troubled by his wife’s fertility issues. His fortunes change when he stumbles on millions in cash while saving a man from a burning building and chooses to keep the loot. Violent complications ensue, and Jaworowski weaves them with the stories of other desperate town residents, including the former-addict father of a disabled child and a nurse with a congenital facial disfigurement who hopes to give a girl with terminal cancer her dying wish, even if doing so would break the law. Jaworowski skillfully toggles between his plot threads, never sacrificing character development for cheap thrills. Admirers of Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan will be eager for more from this talented storyteller.

July 1, 2023
In a lonesome town, three locals embark on treacherous paths toward adventure. In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a backwater where nothing much happens, folks keep to themselves and keep their heads down; they wrestle with despair and heartbreak and struggle in the clutches of multiplying problems. This includes locals Andy Devon, a former junkie whose wife and child have recently died; lonely, disfigured nurse Callie, who tends a dying girl at the close of stage 4 cancer; and volunteer fireman Nathan Stultz, the kind of nice guy who's always tried to do the right thing and only ever suffered for it. But then, fate intervenes. Andy stumbles upon a briefcase full of child pornography and sees a way to save his life and make it worthwhile by catching the pedophile priest responsible. Callie decides to risk her career to make her patient's final wish come true: to drive across the state and see the ocean. And Nathan, in a burning house with his arms full of a man he's trying to rescue, finds $2 million in stolen drug money, a windfall that could finally allow him to leave the town that's been holding him back for so long. In a suspenseful, intertwining narrative, Jaworowski crafts a tale of three souls grasping at slippery chances, finding themselves with no way out other than to keep pushing forward into new, disturbing places. Andy's plan to catch a predator goes horribly awry. Callie's jaunt to the sea quickly turns more perilous than she could have ever foreseen. And Nathan's secreted stash, just waiting for him to finalize his plans to high-tail it out of town, releases a former lover's spite and destructive vindictiveness. Locksburg, for all its remoteness, its staleness and vacuity, never seemed so full of dangerous, teeming forms of life. And death. A satisfying thriller with finely drawn, highly sympathetic characters.

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