The Codger and the Sparrow

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Vibrance Press (Publisher)

Release Date: May 1, 2024

From award-winning writer Scott Semegran, his latest novel The Codger and the Sparrow (Paperback from TCU Press, Audiobook from Vibrance Press) is a comical yet moving story about a widower’s unlikely friendship with a young troublemaker.

Hank O’Sullivan can’t catch a break. The 65-year-old widower lives a routine life, nursing his loneliness with cocktails at his favorite local bar in Austin, Texas. A brawl with an acerbic barfly lands him in jail. The judge pities the old codger and sentences him to do community service, picking up trash beside the interstate highway.

Luis Delgado lives with his stern, single father in a small apartment. The 16-year-old troublemaker has remarkable artistic abilities, but his penchant for sneaking out and trespassing onto rooftops late at night also lands him in community service.

These loners form an unlikely friendship in an inhospitable setting. When Hank tells Luis about his desire to drive to Houston, Texas to reconnect with an old flame, Luis asks to tag along. Luis’ estranged mother also lives in Houston and he has been saving money for a trip, dreaming of reconnecting with her. Hank agrees, setting in motion a raucous road trip in a hot pink 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. Neither Hank nor Luis find what they are looking for, but something altogether different and unexpected happens.

With humor and a bit of grace, The Codger and the Sparrow is a rambunctious story about an unusual friendship stretching across the generations.

Narrated by Brian P. Craig

Praise for The Codger and the Sparrow

“Scott Semegran’s The Codger and the Sparrow is a wondrous novel of the road, where two unlikely people seek out the larger world, and in their uncertainty, help each other navigate the way toward something like home. Told with such an abundance of both humor and tenderness, this is a novel of discovery, of searching for answers, and I could not think of two people I’d rather ride alongside than Hank and Luis.” – Kevin Wilson, New York Times Bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang

“The Codger and The Sparrow is delicious fun. A story told with an abundance of surprise and humor; I loved the characters, the snappy dialogue, and hitting the road in the pink Barracuda. Scott Semegran is one hell of a writer, and this is a terrific novel.” – Annie Hartnett, author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals

“Semegran deftly blends humor with heart in a road trip romp that crosses generational divides. A coming-of-age for one, a coming-to-terms for the other, Semegran’s characters are deeply drawn in a way that envelops readers from the start of their journey to its unexpected end. The Codger and the Sparrow is a fun, fresh meditation on friendship, loss, and new beginnings.” – James Wade, Spur Award-winning author of All Things Left Wild and River, Sing Out

“Scott Semegran’s characters capture the essential human contradiction: that deep flaws and bad decisions exist right alongside our beautiful capacity for kindness and compassion. With equal parts heart and humor, The Codger and the Sparrow is an ode to the strange, messy, and transformative power of friendship.” – Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas

“The Codger and the Sparrow captures many of the joys themselves of the stories it tells—road trips and friendships, chasing curiosities and relationships. The surprises of ourselves and the wonders of the larger world only discovered on the other side of awkward silences and things gone wrong, the beauty of life when fully embraced. It made me want to go on a road trip, to call up an old friend or make one anew, to take a sketchbook with me out into the world and draw the places that have made me who I am.” – Aaron Burch, author of Year of the Buffalo

“The Codger and the Sparrow marks a leap forward in Scott Semegran’s already impressive narrative artistry. Semegran brings to mind Hemingway’s dictum that we are stronger in our broken places, as he brings us inside two very different characters—an aging, irascible widower and an artistically gifted orphan—and shows them coming together in a compelling story of grief and renewal.” – Thomas H. McNeely, award-winning author of Pictures of the Shark and Ghost Horse

“The Codger and the Sparrow is a wide-open heart of a novel, filled with empathy and populated by flawed but loveable characters. A tender, funny ode to families—the ones we’ve lost, the ones we imagine, and the ones that come along when we least expect it.” – C. Matthew Smith, author of Twentymile

Audiobook Info

ISBN: 979-8890930316

ASN: Coming soon

Narrated by: Brian P. Craig

Length: 8 hrs 03 mins 36 sec

Language: English

Publisher: Vibrance Press

Category: Fiction / Literary / Humorous / Friendship

For more information about The Codger and the Sparrow by Scott Semegran including paperback and eBook editions as well as links for purchase, please go here.