A biography of a prominent Hartford clergyman and a novel about the devastating effects on a family when their daughter suddenly disappears are among the winners of the 2009 Connecticut Book Awards.
Stewart O’Nan won the fiction award for his novel “Songs for the Missing.”
On the eve of the G-20 summit, a native son finds a city moving toward the future but longing for its past.
When President Obama announced that Pittsburgh would be the site of the upcoming G-20 summit, even Pittsburghers were surprised. Like a stunned and overcome beauty pageant winner, we honestly never dreamed we were in the running. 
Summits are held in international capitals like London or Helsinki, and while we understood that we weren’t the first choice—for some reason, New York was booked—we were still puzzled, and a little worried. Were we really big enough to handle a summit? And, far more important, how would the rest of the world see Pittsburgh?
from The Costco Connection, September 2009
This fall, you can find copies of Songs for the Missing at your neighborhood Costco.
Every evening when Henry came home from work, without fail, he set his briefcase on the marble-topped table in the front hall, climbed the stairs to their room, faced the dresser and emptied his pockets before hanging up his jacket and tie and washing for supper. Occasionally one or the other of the children shadowed him as he performed this ritual, eager to obtain a final, binding permission or appeal an earlier verdict of hers, but Emily actively discouraged this, as she discouraged outright lobbying at the table. She tried to make his transition from office to hearth as relaxing as possible, to the extent that she refrained from following him up, even if she’d spent the afternoon fretting over some pressing domestic issue only his considered input could resolve.
The Works of Stewart O'Nan 