South - Hardcover – The Tale Trade

South - Hardcover

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by Richard Ploetz (Author)

A mosaic of grief, a lifetime of love and loss, rendered with the cadence of Hemingway

South is a novel about grief, marriage, artistic ambition, and the search for home. Told through interconnected stories and journal entries, it follows Bert Staub, an aspiring writer, and Trudy Steiner, a painter, from their first meeting in upstate New York through years in rural Vermont, New Haven, and New York City.

Within their seemingly idyllic marriage, the fissures that were once obscured become evident as the couple grapples with the loss of their child in a premature birth. In the wake of this monumental loss, Bert and Trudy leave their hometown to live off the grid in rural Vermont, where the symptoms of unresolved grief begin to take their toll.

Over the next decade, Bert and Trudy's marriage steadily falters under the weight of monotony and unfulfilled ambition, and the American dream as envisioned by the two young idealists begins to lose its center. In an attempt to revitalize their youth, they depart to live as artists in 1980s New York City. As they struggle to come to terms with their persistent discontent--both with themselves and each other--the story delicately unfolds and, in the minutiae and depth of their experiences, articulates the neuroses of lives lived in quiet despair.

In this devastating debut, Ploetz writes with intelligence and intoxicating honesty, reminding us of the essential beauty found not in righteousness or ambition, but in the complexity of the lives we live beneath our brittle ideals.

Author Biography

Richard Ploetz is a playwright, poet, and novelist. He received an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama. He has published short stories and poems in The Quarterly, Outerbridge, Crazy Quilt, Timbuktu, American Literary Review, Hayden's Ferry, among other literary magazines. In addition to his other work, Ploetz collaborated with the late comic book artist Clément Oubrerie on the children's book The Kooken and the cartoon series Nedtoons. Ploetz's plays have been produced in New York City at the WPA Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Theatre Genesis, La MaMa ETC, Emerging Artists Theatre, and Theater for the New City. He is a longtime writing instructor at the Lehman College Adult Learning Center. For additional information visit his website: www.richardploetz.com

Number of Pages: 288

Dimensions: 1.1 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN

Publication Date: May 26, 2026