A Lifetime of Men
Recipient of Multiple Honors in the 2021 Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards
- Winner, Mid Atlantic Regional Award
- Bronze Medalist, General Fiction
A Lifetime of Men
Recipient of Multiple Honors in the 2021 Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Awards- Winner, Mid Atlantic Regional Award
- Bronze Medalist, General Fiction
Three women. No apologies.
Tolan’s never thought much about the scar on her mother’s face. She’s asked about it a few times, but her mother always deflects the question with some wild story, and since they’re so close, Tolan lets her have that secret. But Tolan just found a manuscript on her mother’s computer that suggests the true story is almost as crazy as her mother’s tall tales.
Tolan feels guilty for prying, but she keeps reading, and as she does, she finds more mysteries tucked away in her mother’s past. Just when Tolan thinks she can’t take anymore, the protagonist falls in love with an ex-convict named Michael. Michael Tolan. Tolan’s mother told her that her father died before she was born, but Tolan doesn’t believe that anymore. She doesn’t know what to believe. And adding to her confusion, she’s also pretty sure she’s falling in love with her best friend, Tori.
Almost overnight, everything Tolan thought she knew about herself and her family has changed. She wants answers, but is she willing to risk her closest relationships to find them?
Readers Are Saying...
“This phenomenal debut impressively rockets to one of my 2020 favorites, as a thought provoking, profoundly enduring read.”
“It’s been a while since I went to bed a few minutes earlier just so I could open a book and see where it was going – this book was a delightful read and the story stayed with me long after I had closed its pages.”
“Once you get started it’s hard to put down.”
“It’s a powerful read for any fan of Literary Fiction and strong female characters.”
“This is just a wonderful piece of writing. So much heart and deep and moving moments woven throughout this book.”
“The themes are serious and the issues are complex, but the pages just kept flipping by. Perfect for a vacation when you can binge read for hours.“
“Beautifully written and easy to read, yet requires your close attention so as to not miss any important details. I highly recommend!“
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Meet the Characters
Click the toggle icons to learn more about the women of A Lifetime of Men.
Bo — A feisty photojournalist who doesn't play by the rules
Bo’s never been one to care what a girl ‘should’ do. Born Beatrix Rose, she’s been hunting, fishing, and tracking game with her father since she was four. A certified Maine guide by the age of sixteen, she leads numerous hunting expeditions into the Maine wilderness, before reluctantly leaving the state to go to college in New York City.
Classes hold little interest for Bo, so when her best friend, Parker, starts a magazine, she drops out to pursue a career as a photo-journalist. She loves the thrill of the hunt, and she tracks stories like she used to track deer. But the stories she’s chasing are becoming increasingly dangerous, and they almost cost Bo her life on more than one occasion.
Parker wants to protect her. He also wants to marry her. But Bo is fiercely independent, and wants nothing to do with the limitations of living in a ‘man’s world.’ She’ll find her own way and tell her own stories.
Sarah — An orphan trying to hang on to her first real relationship
Sarah was an infant when her father died and eleven when her mother was incarcerated. Family friends have taken her in, but times are tough, and Sarah is last on their priority list. When she turns sixteen, her mother is found dead in her cell, and the family she’s been staying with kicks her out, leaving Sarah to find her own way forward.
But she’s making it. First, a mysterious benefactor offers to put her up in a tiny apartment in a small town where Sarah can get a fresh start. She takes comfort in her routines: she runs, reads, goes to school, and works at a secondhand bookstore. She’s alone, but she’s okay. Then she meets Michael.
Michael is kind and soft-spoken and the first person who’s ever really listened to her. He’s also twelve years older than she is and a convicted felon. That hardly matters to either of them, but their relationship scandalizes the town, which won’t leave Sarah and Michael alone.
Sarah doesn’t mind being a pariah; she can handle the nasty stares and vicious comments. But now people have started hurling bricks instead of insults, and Sarah’s not sure she likes the side of Michael that’s coming out in response.
Tolan — A teenager whose world just got turned upside-down
Tolan runs cross-country and plays guitar. Her father died before she was born, but it’s hard to be sad over someone you’ve never met, so it doesn’t bother her much. She’s super close to her mom, and she and her best friend Tori do everything together.
A high school senior, Tolan’s biggest worries are college applications and the state cross-country meet. But then she discovers that her mother has been hiding things from her: A secret manuscript. The real story behind her scar. The biggest shock of all? Her dad may be alive.
And then there’s Tori. Tori kissed her the other day, and to Tolan’s surprise, she kissed Tori back. Suddenly her best friend has become her secret girlfriend. Tori wants them to come out, but Tolan doesn’t know if she’s ready for that, even though she thinks she’s falling in love with Tori.
So much is changing so quickly. Tolan wants answers, but at what cost?
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“A Lifetime of Men introduces a major new talent in American fiction. Ciahnan Darrell offers a deeply moving story you won’t want to put down.
This riveting novel interweaves the lives of three women across generations. Ciahnan Darrell masterfully layers monumental historical events with the delicate beauty of quotidian life. The novel explores the many kinds of love, capturing the wonderment of a new relationship as friends become lovers, the complexities of forbidden love provoking moral outrage from the community, and a lifelong friendship teetering on the brink of something more.
A Lifetime of Men explores how women challenge the societal expectations limiting them to the home, introducing the unforgettable protagonist Bo. From her humble roots in Maine, where she tramps the forest as a girl to hunt with her bow, to her dazzling success as a photo-journalist, as she captures the atrocities of the Cuban revolution and the internment camps of Japanese Americans during World War II, Bo pushes the boundaries of what women can accomplish in the twentieth century.
A skillful storyteller, Darrell presents a beautifully written tale that challenges readers to honor the women in their own lives by asking for their stories. His novel reminds us that even the mundane moments of daily life reveal the strength and determination of American women.”
Robin E. Field
Professor, Department of English, King’s College, Pennsylvania
Author of Writing the Survivor: The Rape Novel in Late Twentieth-Century American Fiction
Quotes from the Novel
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“Tenderly and elegantly written, Ciahnan Darrell’s debut novel, A Lifetime of Men, deftly balances with equal scope and intensity life’s mundane adventures, its deep-ripping traumas, and the cataclysmic political contexts within which they take place. Readers of Darrell’s beautifully sparse prose inhabit the overlapping dramas and traumas of three generations of small-town Maine women. The “lifetime of men” they endure, the social impediments with which they collide, the rebellions they wage, their successes and failures, stand on equal footing with the audacious intrigue and brutal violence of the Cuban Revolution and the US government’s internment of Japanese Americans.
This satisfyingly humane novel of intimacy in its public and private spheres is ultimately about stories: those we tell ourselves and those we tell others, those we discover and those we suffer, those we survive and those that survive us, even those we unwittingly harbor within ourselves, and how we persevere through and sometimes in spite of them.”
Tyler M. Williams
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Humanities, and Philosophy, Midwesten State University, Texas
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“Tenderly and elegantly written, Ciahnan Darrell’s debut novel, A Lifetime of Men, deftly balances with equal scope and intensity life’s mundane adventures, its deep-ripping traumas, and the cataclysmic political contexts within which they take place. Readers of Darrell’s beautifully sparse prose inhabit the overlapping dramas and traumas of three generations of small-town Maine women. The “lifetime of men” they endure, the social impediments with which they collide, the rebellions they wage, their successes and failures, stand on equal footing with the audacious intrigue and brutal violence of the Cuban Revolution and the US government’s internment of Japanese Americans.
This satisfyingly humane novel of intimacy in its public and private spheres is ultimately about stories: those we tell ourselves and those we tell others, those we discover and those we suffer, those we survive and those that survive us, even those we unwittingly harbor within ourselves, and how we persevere through and sometimes in spite of them.”
Tyler M. Williams
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Humanities, and Philosophy, Midwesten State University, Texas
Help Empower Our Nation’s Young Women
Girls Inc. is committed to training up women who will transform society through their accomplishments and through demanding that they be regarded in the fullness of their value as human beings.
Operating in 350 cities across the US and Canada, Girls Inc. has served girls ages 6-18 for more than 150 years, providing research-based programming and professional mentorship to promote the intellectual and physical well-being integral to leading a rich and fulfilling life, while also engaging in advocacy work to fight for equal opportunities for women and girls.
Girls Inc. encourages girls to dream without limit, while providing a support system and the technical training that enable them to bring those dreams to fruition.
I proudly donate 10% of my earnings from A Lifetime of Men to Girls Inc. I hope you will join me in supporting this excellent organization.
What’s Tolan’s Listening To?
Check out these YouTube playlists to hear what Tolan is listening to when she’s running, emoting, or just hanging out!