After June

1960s small town America is in for a shock in the poignant new novel After June – a skillfully crafted tale of complicated love, sexual awakening, racism and hard-won acceptance. Every one of After June’s unforgettable characters will live on long after the final page is turned.Lake Calloway High School is utterly unprepared for new arrival Janet Carlsen, an unorthodox home economics teacher who provokes and captivates staff and students alike. Her rebellious nature leads to a forbidden affair that pushes the boundaries of sexuality and the law, while raising suspicions that lead to a misguided investigation and a confrontation that forever changes the lives of those involved.The town’s idyllic facade also conceals a dark underbelly of intolerance – the arrival of Lake Calloway’s first Negro student forces residents to confront their own values and fears. But this shunned outsider finds a kindred soul man in a student disc jockey and together they vow to bring the soundtrack of a rapidly changing world to a town teetering at the edge of evolution.All the while, the escalating horror of the Vietnam War looms in the background – an oppressive, distant menace weighing on the hearts and minds of these draft-age boys, those who love them and will mourn the losses. An intensely personal novel loaded with sixties nostalgia, After June explores the charm and the anguish of that tumultuous era in a truly memorable way.After June is the first novel from Jan Heininger, an Emmy-nominated screen and television writer.