In the pages of the book \u201cFine Young People,\u201d readers meet Frankie, who is a good daughter, a loyal best friend and a model student in her final semester at an elite Catholic prep school. <\/p>\n
Frankie\u2019s hockey player classmate Kyle Murphy takes his life after posting a cryptic message about Woolf Whiting \u2014 a former student and hockey player who died in a presumed suicide 18 years earlier. A third player, Colton Brooks, also died four years before Murphy.<\/p>\n
In the book, Frankie and her best friend Shiv do some investigative reporting for their senior journalism class project.<\/p>\n
It takes place in Sewickley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really see this as a Pittsburgh novel,\u201d said author Anna Bruno. \u201cMany scenes are in Sewickley, but there are other areas such as the incline on the South Side and the Strip District. There is a lot of nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nostalgia takes Bruno back to her days growing up in Upper St. Clair. She attended Shady Side Academy and now lives in Iowa. Bruno said she chose Sewickley because she wanted a town where people could envision walking down a main street. The book mentions that industrialists built their weekend estates in Sewickley to escape the \u201cchoking pollution of the Steel City.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI love Sewickley and have an affinity for it,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cIt is charming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruno will be in town on Aug. 2 for an event at Penguin Bookshop.<\/p>\n
Bobbi Irving, book seller for Penguin Bookshop, said the book grabbed her interest from the first page.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are interested in this event. They\u2019ve been asking about it,\u201d Irving said. \u201cThe book is an enjoyable read for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irving said she likes that Sewickley is the town referenced in the book, and that through reading it, people can see that Sewickley has affluent residents as well as middle-class working folks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that she addresses that,\u201d Irving said. \u201cMaybe one reason she chose Sewickley is that there is a lot of hockey interest here in Sewickley.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s title is kind of tongue-in-cheek, Bruno said, as sometimes prep school students are referred to as \u201cFine young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its cover captures the mood of the novel because the colors portray mystery and resemble a dusk setting over the school, which Bruno describes as \u201can elite Catholic prep school in a wealthy Pittsburgh enclave.\u201d<\/p>\n
She dedicated the book to her best friend in high school, Leena, who read an early draft. As best friends Frankie and Shiv dive into the past, they discover much more than they expected in the cold-case fiction mystery.<\/p>\n
In the book, Frankie interviews Woolf\u2019s sister, who is a high-powered lawyer in New York; his former girlfriend, who Woolf\u2019s mother is convinced knows more about his death than she has revealed, according to the book, and his best friend. Frankie discovers much more than she expected about the history of her supposed elite education. Overhearing a conversation between her mother and Frankie\u2019s philosophy teacher, Jesuit priest Father Michael, created even more intrigue.<\/p>\n
The book went through several revisions, Bruno said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of like doing a puzzle where you move pieces around until you find out where they fit,\u201d Bruno said.<\/p>\n
Richelle Klug, head of communications for Sewickley Public Library, said via email that \u201cFine Young People\u201d is on their radar, but as it\u2019s a forthcoming title, library staff haven\u2019t yet had the opportunity to read it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to exploring it once it\u2019s released and seeing how Sewickley is represented,\u201d Klug said. \u201cWe are always excited and proud when Sewickley \u2014 a community so rich in character and history \u2014 is highlighted in books.\u201d<\/p>\n
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region’s diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of “A Daughter’s Promise.” She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the pages of the book \u201cFine Young People,\u201d readers meet Frankie, who is a good daughter, a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":91736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-91735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114914659055135297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}