Rebecca L. Brown

press release: Set in Madison, Wisconsin, FLYING AT NIGHT is a powerful debut novel about one mother who is challenged to find a new normal when her entire world is turned upside down. 

Piper is the mother of nine-year-old Fred, a precocious, voracious reader obsessed with World War II and airplanes and is endlessly observant—yet doesn’t have any friends. To Piper, his idiosyncrasies seem harmless, but to his teachers, they show signs of something more serious. As she learns the difficult-to-grasp truth that her son is autistic, a tragedy hits: her father suffers a heart attack that leaves him brain damaged, and her mother decides to abandon their unfulfilling and abusive marriage, leaving Piper as his caregiver. Suddenly, the father that Piper worked so hard to distance herself from becomes entangled in her life again as he and his dog, the loveable Chuck Yeager, move in with her and her family during his recovery.

FLYING AT NIGHT explores universal questions of love, family, marriage, friendship, and forgiveness.  Drawing on personal experience as the mother of an autistic child, Rebecca L. Brown realistically inhabits these characters and voices, coaxing out the tough questions and decisions the family faces in their new normal.