Reunion
By Alan Lightman
Pantheon Books, 2003

(From the publisher) Alan Lightman's new novel, Reunion, is a delicate and haunting story of how we shape our identity through memory.

Charles is a middle-aged professor at a minor liberal-arts college, a once promising poet, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Without knowing why, he decides to attend his 30-year college reunion. And there, he magically witnesses a replay of his senior year.

Drawn back into his memories, Charles watches his tender and romantic 22-year-old self embark on an all-consuming love affair with a beautiful dancer. As the two young people struggle to find themselves amidst the social and political chaos of the late 1960s, the older Charles recalls contradictory versions of his past, ultimately confronting for the second time a series of devastating events that would forever change his life.

Reunion explores the pain of self-examination, the clay-like nature of memory, and the impossible hopefulness of youth.

About the author
(From the publisher) Alan Lightman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and educated at Princeton and the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include three novels, Einstein's Dreams, Good Benito, and The Diagnosis; a collection of essays and fables, Dance for Two; and several books on science. He lives in Massachusetts.