Andrew McCarthy has achieved fame as a movie actor, Broadway star, television director and award-winning travel writer. As of 2017, he can also add debut novelist to that list.
McCarthy, who knows just a bit about teen angst and the emotional bruises that adolescents take as they struggle to come of age, now turns to literature to tap into the mind of a young teen whose normal life is unexpectedly disrupted after she discovers some life-changing family secrets.
McCarthy first gained celebrity as a Hollywood teen heart-throb who appeared in the classic Brat Pack movies St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink as well as cult films like Weekend at Bernie’s and Mannequin. With his boy-next-door good looks, McCarthy portrayed classic characters that represented a generation struggling against encroaching adulthood. In his debut novel, Just Fly Away, McCarthy uses wit and gentle seriousness to showcase a familiar coming-of-age drama focused on family, first love and grief.
In Just Fly Away, 15-year-old Lucy struggles to understand her father’s extramarital affair and the recent exposure of an 8-year-old half-brother living across town. Initially, this startling and heart-breaking betrayal knocks the normally plucky Lucy off balance, and to cope, she increasingly isolates herself from her apathetic friends, unconcerned siblings and once-close boyfriend until she makes a life-altering decision to uncover her family’s long-buried secrets and hidden past on her own. Just Fly Away is a tremendously thoughtful and heart-warming tale about the individual struggles of growing up and the intimate, often unspoken complexities behind our family secrets.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Andrew McCarthy will appear in a ticketed event at Boswell Book Co. (2559 N. Downer Ave.) at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 10.
