Krakow

Sean Akerman’s crisp, evocative voice lays bare vulnerabilities, wonder, and mystery. With deep attention to his characters’ psychologies, he creates men and women who linger in your mind long after you finish reading. His novella, Krakow, does just that. A man moves into a Brooklyn apartment and finds the journals left behind by the previous tenants. As he reads the journals, he discovers two people wrestling with why and how their love disappeared. Krakow is set in the present day, amid the streets of Brooklyn. Its concerns will resonate with readers young and old, telling a timeless story of how lovers become strangers. Working in the novella form, Akerman is able to move swiftly over a landscape of heartache and hope. It is this sort of writing that is re-establishing the novella as a potent form of storytelling in contemporary literature. Suitable for all ages, Krakow points to Sean Akerman as a force to be reckoned with in American letters.