brendan shannon

Everyone remembers their first love that got away, but very few have a second chance with that object of youthful unbridled desire. Upon learning of the death of a high school friend, John Moran, a middle-aged university administrator recalls his youth spanning the years from the Eisenhower Administration to the Ford Administration spent in dreary Binghamton, New York, a small city in
upstate New York in decline. John vividly remembers both his strict, unforgiving, and cold mother, Mary Kate Moran, and his best friend,
Tip O'Neill, as they grow up and remain unhappily in Binghamton, anchored by old habits, alcohol and the depressing gloom of the Binghamton weather.
And then one night in the summer of 1975 before his senior year of college, John has a chance meeting with his almost-forgotten high school crush, Mary Lou Mooney, and from that night John finds himself falling madly in love with Mary Lou again, and this time it seems Mary Lou has fallen for him as well.
But devastating events in the fall of 1975 cause John to lose those closest to him. Consumed by guilt, he makes a cross-country journey for inner peace that leads him to initially find love in a most unexpected place, and to later forgive those who had hurt him in his youth as he finally understands that he was not alone in suffering from unrequited love.
Unrequited is a powerful and haunting story of love, loss, madness, death, redemption, and acceptance that will profoundly touch readers.